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Knockhill BTCC: Turkington scores WSR's 100th win in opener

Colin Turkington claimed West Surrey Racing's 100th victory in the British Touring Car Championship after dominating the opening race of the Knockhill weekend.

100th BTCC win for Colin Turkington, Team BMW BMW 330i M Sport

100th BTCC win for Colin Turkington, Team BMW BMW 330i M Sport

JEP / Motorsport Images

The combination of the four-time champion, the BMW 330i M Sport and soft tyres proved unstoppable as Turkington took his second win of the season, after a difficult few weekends.

Turkington sprinted clear from pole, pulling a three-second lead after just three laps as fellow front row-starter Senna Proctor acted as the cork in the bottle and had the rest of the top 10 swarming behind him.

But Turkington's advantage was soon negated by a lengthy safety car period needed to recover Dan Lloyd's Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, which speared into the barriers at the chicane after a suspected car breakage following a kerb strike.

Yet the safety car period did not halt Turkington's charge as he again built up a comfortable buffer of 4.3s by the flag to take the landmark win for WSR.

"I'm delighted to be back on the top step - it's been a barren few weekends for me," said Turkington.

"Team BMW have me a really good car yesterday in qualifying and that's key."

WSR team boss Dick Bennetts added: "It's a fantastic achievement for everyone in the team - it makes me feel old having 100 wins!"

Proctor was not under such pressure after the safety car restart and eased clear to take a clear second.

Instead, it was Chris Smiley's Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30N that was facing a stern examination.

Proctor's BTC Honda Civic teammate Josh Cook was all over the rear of Smiley for a number of laps, making one unsuccessful move on the inside of the Hairpin, being unable to make the corner.

Cook did strike on lap 20 of 27 with a great move on the inside of Clark's to take third and Smiley found himself down to fifth at the next corner when the charging Ash Sutton dived up the inside at the Hairpin.

Sutton, despite running maximum ballast and the slower harder rubber on his Infiniti Q50, was on a mission, having earlier made a good pass on Jake Hill's Motorbase Ford Focus at Clark's.

Sutton was then glued to Cook's Honda for the remainder of the race but had to settle for fourth, still extending his points lead.

Smiley held on for fifth ahead of Hill, while Sutton's teammate Aiden Moffat was seventh on home soil.

Gordon Shedden finished eighth for the Team Dynamics squad, while Speedworks Toyota driver Rory Butcher passed Tom Ingram's Hyundai into McIntyre's with two laps to go to seal ninth.

Ingram remains second in the standings after third-placed Dan Rowbottom was only able to progress to 15th from 19th on the grid in his heavier Honda.

Race 1 results:

Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine  Gap
2 Colin Turkington BMW  
18 Senna Proctor Honda 4.254
66 Josh Cook Honda 8.076
1 Ash Sutton Infiniti 8.643
22 Chris Smiley Hyundai 12.071
24 Jake Hill Ford 13.061
16 Aiden Moffat Infiniti 13.111
52 Gordon Shedden Honda 16.273
6 Rory Butcher Toyota 25.848
10  80 Tom Ingram Hyundai 27.688
11  12 Stephen Jelley BMW 27.899
12  3 Tom Chilton BMW 28.167
13  33 Adam Morgan BMW 28.487
14  11 Jason Plato Vauxhall 29.759
15  32 Daniel Rowbottom Honda 30.167
16  31 Jack Goff Cupra 30.727
17  23 Sam Smelt Toyota 32.558
18  41 Carl Boardley Infiniti 33.619
19  4 Sam Osborne Ford 34.705
20  96 Jack Butel Hyundai 35.693
21  62 Rick Parfitt Hyundai 38.341
22  19 Jack Mitchell Cupra 38.665
23  20 Paul Rivett Ford 39.317
24  28 Nicolas Hamilton Cupra 39.869
25  40 Árón T.-Smith Cupra 41.021
26  99 Jade Edwards Honda  
48 Ollie Jackson Ford  
15 Tom Oliphant BMW  
123 Daniel Lloyd Vauxhall  

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