BTCC 2016: Silverstone

It's tight at the top as the penultimate round of BTCC 2016 leaves EIGHT drivers in the running [now with video]

How open do you like your motor racing championships? How about so open, any one of eight drivers could mathematically win it at the Brands Hatch season finale? That's what BTCC Silverstone 2016 served up, after a day in which the title contenders were largely left to fight it out in the pack as others took the spoils.

Guaranteed close racing at Silverstone!

Qualifying set the scene, with the first 22 drivers separated by less than a second. Even Emmerdale's Kelvin Fletcher was on the pace at the close running, six-corner Silverstone National Circuit. Just 1.6 miles long, it's all about long straights and tight corners, making neatness and a lack of mistakes absolutely paramount. And it was MG's Ash Sutton who did the cleanest job of all, taking pole by just 0.003 seconds - that's 13cm - from Speedworks' Tom Ingram.

The MGs came through in the race too, despite poor starts: Sutton took the win and teammate Josh Cook was second, after passing Ingram's Toyota on lap 12. Ingram didn't stop trying in the race though, and he was surprisingly rewarded for his fighting spirit after the event when both MGs were excluded because their rear wings were outside the allowed tolerances. Minor, no doubt, but when things are as close as they are at Silverstone, every little helps. So Ingram was handed the win, the second of the season for the popular young racer.

Subaru will be disappointed with not a single podium

Andrew Jordan and people's hero Rob Austin inherited second and third, but MG Racing has appealed the Cook exclusion; the hearing will be heard at a later date so it's not yet clear who'll officially be runner-up. Matt Neal won't be one of them, though: both he and fellow title-chasing teammate Gordon Shedden suffered punctures, Neal's coming a while after a forceful move on Aiden Moffat that resulted in brief BTCC bedlam. Moffat recovered to take a well-earned ninth, following it up with two more ninths for a rather neat '999' Silverstone finishing card in the Laser Tools Racing Mercedes-Benz A-Class.

Race two thus saw Ingram on pole and Jordan just alongside him. They went off in order but the Motorbase driver was looking racy and eventually bowled past on lap seven. Adam Morgan took second as Ingram's Toyota faded, but he still hung the Avensis on for his second podium of the day, nosing ahead of a gaggle led by Colin Turkington's Subaru. A well-recovered Shedden stormed through the field to take eighth, proving luckier with the breaks than Neal, who was 15th.

Shedden's day got better still when he was pulled out of the hat to take pole in race three, the joy only spoiled slightly by the knowledge Rob Collard's fast-starting rear-wheel-drive BMW 125i would be alongside him. Sure enough, Collard jumped into the lead, but not for long: on the second lap, Shedden pulled off the move of the day, taking Collard around the outside through Maggots. The BMW couldn't fight back and Shedden duly won by over half a second - and not from Collard, but from Motorbase driver Mat Jackson, who took Collard a lap after the Scot.

Bring on Brands...

Further back, Colin Turkington was fourth, Neal fifth and Sam Tordoff sixth. Which has left things all highly spicy in the championship with even Tordoff's 11-point lead looking like scant advantage when just one slice of elbows-out BTCC driving can cost you 20 points (remember, points go 20-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1; no wonder the mathematicians are contemplating charging triple for calculating championship standings live at Brands).

Such a tight title run-in is why Neal was so relatively delighted after the third race, simply because he beat Tordoff. Shedden's tenacity in storming through the grid was no doubt focused by the thought of getting so many points (and getting ahead of his teammate), while even Jason Plato is a distant title contender, despite being 58 points behind Tordoff. If there's an afternoon you simply have to keep clear this year, it's Sunday October 2, when the BTCC boys will be battling to discover which winner takes it all.

Watch the video highlights here

Results:

Silverstone Race 1:
1st: Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport)
2nd: Andrew Jordan (Motorbase Performance)
3rd: Rob Austin (Handy Motorsport)

Silverstone Race 2:
1st: Andrew Jordan (Motorbase Performance)
2nd: Adam Morgan (WIX Racing)
3rd: Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport)

Silverstone Race 3:
1st: Gordon Shedden (Halfords Yuasa Racing)
2nd: Mat Jackson (Motorbase Performance)
3rd: Rob Collard (Team JCT600 Racing with GardX)

Driver's championship
1: Sam Tordoff (278 points)
2: Gordon Shedden (267 points)
3: Matt Neal (265 points)
4: Rob Collard (261 points)
5: Mat Jackson (257 points)
6: Andrew Jordan (247 points)
7: Colin Turkington (241 points)
8: Jason Plato (220 points)

Independent drivers' championship
1: Andrew Jordan (396 points)
2: Mat Jackson (362 points)
3: Adam Morgan (314 points)
4: Tom Ingram (301 points)
5: Rob Austin (243 points)

Jack Sears Trophy for rookies
1: Ash Sutton (409 points)
2: Michael Epps (376 points)
3: Matt Simpson (293 points)
4: Mark Howard (241 points)
5: Chris Smiley (183 points)

Previous rounds:
BTCC Brands Hatch Indy (rounds 1, 2, 3)
BTCC Donington (rounds 4, 5, 6)
BTCC Thruxton (rounds 7, 8, 9)
BTCC Oulton Park (rounds 10, 11, 12)
BTCC Croft (rounds 13, 14, 15)
BTCC Snetterton (rounds 16, 17 18)
BTCC Knockhill (rounds 19, 20, 21)
BTCC Rockingham (rounds 22, 23, 24)

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anonymous-user

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55 months

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Monday 19th September 2016

The first BTCC meet I've ever been to. What a brilliant day! So much value for money in the ticket as well. Parking free, and grandstands are public smile