Oh what a difference a fortnight makes! Two weeks ago Donington provided us with plenty of wet weather action, but this weekend it was time to reach for the factor 30, swap jeans for shorts, and enjoy a glorious spring day at Thruxton for Rounds 7, 8 and 9 of the 2014 BTCC.
"Can you stay off the kerbs lads? For the tyres."
The Hampshire track holds the mantra of being 'Britain's Fastest Circuit'; this coupled with its rather abrasive surface brings an interesting challenge for tyre supplier Dunlop, which has to provide a unique tyre compound just for Thruxton. The usual BTCC regulations of drivers having to use two tyre compounds over the three races don't apply here at Thruxton; it's just the one tough tyre compound that they run.
Pole position at Thruxton has been claimed by Andrew Jordan in the previous two seasons, and he made it a hat-trick on Saturday with a blistering time of 1m 16.192s, breaking Yvan Müller's BTCC Thruxton lap record, which has stood since 2002!
Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden qualified second and third respectively in their works Honda Civic Tourers giving a Honda lock-out on the front row of the grid. One noticeable absentee from the top ten was Colin Turkington in the BMW who had to settle for 13th, five places behind team mate Rob Collard.
"Forget it. Just forget it"
Despite qualifying on pole in 2012 and 2013, Jordan had never tasted victory at Thruxton, but all that changed in the opening race on Sunday, when he led the pack from start-to-finish.
Jordan was chased early on by Mat Jackson in his Focus which seemed to fly off the line, but as Jackson then slipped back, he fell into the jaws of the two Honda Tourers of Neal and Shedden. This three-way battle allowed Jordan to pull out a healthy lead, meaning that by the time the two Honda Tourers passed Jackson in an impressive double move through the Campbell/Cobb complex, Jordan was too far up the road to be caught, but the all-Honda podium was secure.
Rob Collard and Colin Turkington both made up places, finishing 5th and 8th. Collard had pressure all the way through the race from Jason Plato in the MG, particularly towards the end, but defended well.
Another successful Honda weekend
In Race 2, Andrew Jordan started on pole carrying 45kgs of ballast with the two Honda Tourers right behind him. In a dramatic first corner, Shedden outbraked himself trying to get his Tourer into the lead, but lost out to Collard meaning it was Jordan, Collard and Shedden making up the top three as the pack chased down to the back end of the circuit. Collard carrying just 9kgs of ballast was all over the back end of Jordan's Civic during the first two laps, but once Jordan's tyres were up to temperature he was able to fend off the BMW.
It didn't take long for Shedden to make his move; on lap three, he got a great exit out of Church and was able to place his Civic Tourer up the inside of Collard's BMW through Brooklands and make the move stick into Club for second place. Shedden and Jordan then exchanged fastest laps as the two pulled away from the rest of the field.
BMWs made amends for poor qualifying
Behind them some great drama unfolded, and fans were treated to a great display of driving and sportsmanship as on lap 8 Matt Neal and Mat Jackson held their cars side by side through a string of 3 or 4 corners, with Matt Neal winning out to take fourth position. Colin Turkington watched this unfold right in front of him, and tried to capitalise as the two duelled, but couldn't get close enough and stayed sixth.
The battle at the front raged on through to lap 11 with Jordan leading Shedden, until Jordan got his Civic sideways through the chicane which cost him time, and allowed Shedden to drive clean past him and take the lead by the time they started lap 12.
The race came to an early end on lap 14 when contact between Rob Austin in the Audi A4 and Nick Foster in the BMW sent them both off, Foster's BMW skipping across the grass before hitting and leap-frogging the barrier into the woods beyond. That incident bought out the red flags, although fortunately both drivers were okay, and would return for Race 3.
One tyre compound only at Thruxton
Giovanardi pulled himself out the hat to start the final race on pole position in his Focus, and led a drama-packed field through the first few corners with Adam Morgan getting sideways behind him in the Mercedes A-Class who held the slide well, only to get it back and bounce off the side of Plato's MG. That spelled the end of Plato who retired with rear suspension damage.
Giovanardi didn't hold his lead for long, with Colin Turkington making his move in the BMW to take the lead, with Goff in the Insignia and Collard in the other BMW then pressing Giovanardi hard.
Mat Jackson managed to get past Collard to take fourth before a big accident involving Oli Jackson in the Proton bought the safety car out - Mat Jackson seemingly didn't realise and carried on to overtake Goff under yellows. Lots of confusion ensued as to whether or not this was a legal move, but he wasn't told to give the position back, and racing resumed!
Tricky Thruxton still caught a few out!
Turkington did well on the restart managing to open up a two second lead within two laps, until there was another big accident at Church when Simon Belcher's Toyota Avensis rolled over the barriers, and the safety car returned again. Simon fortunately emerged pretty quickly, his car though was buried deep within the woods after what could well have been a 100+mph accident.
The final laps were a true demonstration of why fans love the BTCC with Mat Jackson getting past Giovanardi on lap 17 to take second position, leaving Giovanardi to fight off the chasing pack of Jordan, Shedden and Goff, which Shedden having controversially overtaken Goff through Church under waved yellows. Then on lap 18 Matt Neal tapped Collard, Collard responded with a big push on Neal sending him sideways before they both took to the grass to recover.
Colin Turkington brought the BMW home to victory ahead of Mat Jackson and, much to the delight of the whole paddock, Fabrizio Giovanardi was able to bring his Focus home in third.
That final fight capped off a great day's racing, one in which we saw dominance early on from the Hondas, drama at Church corner, a great fight for third from a familiar character, and the paint swapping antics that we know and love to see. As the crowds made their way home, and the teams packed up the paddock, Thruxton had played host to a wonderful event which reminded us why we love the BTCC so much.
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