Brands Hatch BTCC: Turkington takes title, Cammish crashes out

The WSR driver recovered 19 places to finish sixth having slipped past Cammish, who then suffered a car failure on lap 13 of 15 and spun backwards into a tyre wall.

It takes Turkington equal with Andy Rouse as a four-time BTCC champion, winning by two points as Andrew Jordan and Cammish tie in the standings.

It was fellow BMW driver Stephen Jelley who led during the early part of the race, having made a strong launch from second on the grid to usurp polesitter Senna Proctor into Paddock Hill Bend.

With fifth-starting Jason Plato passing Proctor through Surtees, he closed to Jelley and then got a clean run out of Clearways to overtake down the main straight and lead.

In a race uninterrupted by a safety car, Plato was at times four seconds to the good on the soft compound tyre.

He dropped back in the late stages, but sealed his 97th BTCC win by a margin of 0.958s over Rory Butcher – who won the Independents’ drivers crown.

Ash Sutton headed Jordan for third place after Proctor was knocked into a spin at Stirlings by Josh Cook, who eventually finished fifth.

Turkington, in sixth, blitzed 10 places on the opening lap to climb to 15th and into the points positions.

With Jelley, Proctor and Tom Chilton’s in trouble, Turkington found himself behind Tom Ingram and Cammish on the fringes of the top 10.

He outdragged Ingram on the run out of Surtees, and then dived past Cammish with the inside line into Druids.

Cammish fell prey to Adam Morgan and a recovering Jelley – having ran wide at Surtees – but suffered a dramatic car failure, which sent him spinning into the tyre wall and out of the race with just over a lap to go.

It marks the first time Cammish has failed to finish a race all season.

Ingram held on for seventh ahead of Jackson, Morgan and Tom Oliphant, with Mark Blundell ending his racing return in 20th.