Race three report

Sun 2nd August 2009 Colin Turkington inherited his sixth win of the season after RML's James Nash was excluded from race three at Snetterton. Nash was first across the line, but was later punished for hitting the rear of Rob Collard's Airwaves BMW and causing a heavy collision between Collard and Stephen Jelley.

Collard made a sensational start from the second row, passing Nash and polesitter Harry Vaulkhard almost before they had moved away from the line. If Collard’s start was good, Vaulkhard’s was not. Nash was ahead of the bamboo engineering car by the first corner while Jonny Adam and Colin Turkington also made light work of the Lacetti.

Vaulkhard’s disastrous first lap came to a race-ending close at Coram when he slid rapidly across the grass and into the tyre barrier. He was soon out of the car and was no doubt left wondering what happened so early in what had been a promising race.

Collard’s lead at the end of the first lap was 1.4 seconds from Nash and Adam. Turkington was fourth, Plato fifth and Paul O’Neill again showing strongly in sixth.

Nash closed the gap to Collard over the next couple of laps and was right on the rear of the BMW on lap seven but the leaders were greeted by the safety car when they crossed the line – Tom Chilton’s Team Aon Focus having come to rest at the Esses. Meanwhile Jason Plato had suffered a left-front puncture and was forced to crawl back to the pits.

When the race restarted three laps later, Nash resumed his challenge on Collard, tapping the BMW at the Esses on lap 12. Nash was quick, but Collard’s wealth of BTCC experience was keeping him in front of the Chevrolet. With the top five all running together on the following lap, Nash again hit Collard at the Esses. In fact, this time it was a double-tap and the result was Collard knocked sideways onto the grass.

Nash was through into the lead and Collard was helpless as his Airwaves BMW slid back towards the track – and the following pack. Stephen Jelley was right on the tail of Matt Neal at the time and as Neal dived left to avoid Collard, Jelley was left unsighted and collected Collard’s stranded BMW. That was the end of the race for both of them and the trigger for a lengthy safety car period as the two cars were recovered.

The safety car caught the leaders by surprise when it came out on track. Nash and Turkington braked suddenly and Paul O’Neill – now up to third – hit the back of the sole remaining Team RAC BMW. Fortunately no major damage was done to the Sunshine.co.uk Honda and although he initially lost a couple of positions, he was allowed to recover them behind the safety car.

Once the Collard and Jelley BMWs were moved to safety, the race was able to resume with a three-lap sprint to the flag. Nash was out at the front, ahead of Turkington and O’Neill, but Fabrizio Giovanardi in fourth was within sight of a remarkable triple.

The reigning champion passed O’Neill going through Sear after the restart, but O’Neill had dropped off the back of the lead pair, probably ending Giovanardi’s slim hopes of a hat-trick. However, on the final lap of the race, the Vauxhall driver was hot on the heels of Turkington. It was not to be for the Italian racer, who ultimately settled for third.

James Nash held on to cross the line first, ahead of Turkington and Giovanardi. Matt Neal was fourth, Andrew Jordan fifth and James Thompson sixth. Paul O’Neill’s impressive weekend ended with seventh position, ahead of Adam Jones, Jonny Adam and David Pinkney.

With Nash's subsequent exclusion from the race, Turkington inherited the win, promoting Giovanardi to second and Neal to third. Boulevard Team Racing driver Martin Johnson moves up to tenth, claiming his first BTCC point.

Colin Turkington continues to lead the championship, albeit by a reduced margin. Pending the completion of any juducial matters, the Team RAC driver leads by 16 points from Fabrizio Giovanardi.