Colin Turkington’s hopes of clinching a record fifth Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship title are over after suffering a first DNF of the season at the penultimate meeting of 2024.
He has slipped to sixth in the standings, 66 points in arrears of Jake Hill (MB Motorsport with Laser Tools Racing), who has 376, with Tom Ingram (Team Bristol Street Motors) just two points further back. Four-time champion Ash Sutton is currently third on 332 and Dan Cammish fourth on 307.
Silverstone National was badly affected by inclement weather yesterday and none more so for the day-ending reversed grid contest, with some teams — including West Surrey Racing, who run Turkington’s car — saying the conditions were risky and simply unsuitable for racing to take place.
That proved to be the case not long after the lights went out as Turkington was powerless to stop his BMW 330e M Sport from squirming off the track — and into the gravel trap — on the fourth lap.
Once that happened, the decision was taken by race stewards to red flag Round 27, and after a half-hour delay, drivers returned to the track behind the safety car. When the all-clear was given, Ingram survived a clash with Sutton in the dying moments to go on and score a second win of the meeting.
Having been promoted from fourth to second for yesterday’s opening rain-lashed sprint after several drivers were penalised for failing post-qualifying checks, Turkington came under sustained early pressure from Hill, who passed the Northern Irishman on the Wellington Straight.
Identical moves were performed using hybrid power by the NAPA Racing UK duo of Cammish and Sutton to leave Turkington to cross the line in fifth position, some 8.199 secs behind winner Ingram.
It was a much stronger performance by Turkington in a soggy Race Two. Helped by nine laps of hybrid energy, he deployed the extra power to great effect as he made up three places to cross the finish line eight-tenths of a second shy of Hill, who made it victory No.7 of the current campaign.
Turkington’s move for the runner-up spot came on lap 12 of 22 as he used the cutback at the long right turn at Luffield Corner to outsmart Ingram and secure the more preferred inside line. Josh Cook rounded out the podium places.
Meanwhile, in Italy, Hillsborough’s Dan Harper and his ROWE Racing team-mates Max Hesse and Augusto Farfus ended the 3 Hours of Monza a lap down on the BMW M4 GT3 shared by Ahmad Al Harthy, Sam De Haan and Jens Klingmann. They had climbed from tenth to second in the last hour of the Fanatec GT World Challenge round only for a loose wheel to halt their charge.