Oulton Park’s reputation as a circuit for rear-wheel-drive cars was shown clearly in round 11 of the British Touring Car Championship, taken by the BMW of Sam Tordoff followed by the Subarus of Colin Turkington and Jason Plato.
Star of the second race of the day, however, was Tordoff’s team-mate Rob Collard, who fought his way from 23rd on the grid to seventh, only to make a mistake and pick up a puncture.
Tordoff’s West Surrey Racing BMW 1 Series beat race one winner Colin Turkington’s Subaru Levorg away from the line as the lights turned green, and like Turkington in the opening race was never headed, even when a safety car period closed up the field following a multiple collision in the middle of the pack that accounted for Ashley Sutton’s MG. Turkington then came under pressure from his team-mate Plato. With six laps down the second Subaru drew alongside but was unable to force its way through, the top three staying the same to the end of the 16 laps.
The major interest was further back, the second Triple Eight Racing MG6 of Josh Cook holding back a train of cars that included championship leader Matt Neal’s Honda Civic, the pair having controversially clashed in the previous meeting at Thruxton. As Neal’s increasingly forceful attempts to steal sixth from Cook failed to succeed, the battle drew in the BMW of Rob Collard, which had set fastest race lap while progressing from a lowly 23rd start spot.
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