Turkington strengthens BTCC lead with race two win

Team BMW's Colin Turkington has extended his British Touring Car Championship lead to 40-points over his team mate Andrew Jordan after winning the second race of the day at Snetterton.

The defending three-time champion elected to use the soft tyre during the second race and made the grip advantage count by forcing his way past pole-sitter and race leader Tom Ingram on the seventh lap of the race.

Ingram had valiantly held the lead for half of the race on the slower medium compound tyre, but was ultimately powerless in keeping an impatient Turkington behind him.

The Team Toyota GB driver's race unravelled in the space of one corner after apparent contact with Turkington's 3 Series saw Ingram drop immediately down the field, where he eventually limped across the line in 23rd position.

Behind Turkington, Honda's Dan Cammish profited from the brief moment of contact between the race leaders by repassing the BMW of Andrew Jordan for second position.

Despite running the slower medium tyre, Cammish managed to keep the soft tyre running BMW of Jordan behind to record a second consecutive second place finish, sandwiching the BMWs with Jordan having to settle for third.

Turkington’s fifth win of 2019 also means West Surrey Racing have won more races so far during this campaign than any other season so far during their illustrious BTCC career.

Motorbase Performance's Ollie Jackson was another to utilise the grip of the soft Dunlop tyre to fine effect and recorded his best result of the season with a fourth place finish ahead of AmD's Sam Tordoff in fifth.

As in race one, Jason Plato finished in sixth after losing precious ground at the start of the race. The Vauxhall Astra driver elected to use the soft tyre for the second race but was unable to get past the Honda of Tordoff after recovering from a slow start.

Subaru's Ashley Sutton bounced back up the order to finish in seventh, while BTC Racing's Chris Smiley will start race three from pole position after finishing in eighth position ahead of Matt Simpson and Jake Hill.