BMW bashing surprise?

by Ian Gallagher

It wouldn’t be a touring car season unless there were big battles, door bashing and complaints in the pitlane after the races.

All the best seasons of recent years have featured monumental fights between some of the greats of tin-top racing – Plato, Giovanardi, Thompson, Muller, Neal – the list is endless.

But two drivers who most pundits probably wouldn’t have had down for door-bashing and controversy are Mat Jackson and Colin Turkington.

Fate and speed in equal measure has placed the BMW duo on the same piece of track more often than not recently, and it has been incident-packed on each occasion.

The pair’s battle at Brands Hatch was epic, with Turkington providing a hard but fair defence of his position on the final lap.

Jackson repaid the favour on the first lap at Rockingham, blocking Turkington’s advances on the run out of Tarzan hairpin.

Then the final, sodden encounter of the day saw the pair make contact on the way into the same corner and Jackson’s race ended in the gravel.

Debate has raged on BTCC messageboards in the wake of the encounters in Northamptonshire with some choice words being aimed in the direction of both competitors.

But it would be difficult to argue that two harder, fairer racers are currently plying their trade in the series.

While Jason Plato gave us a trademark whine after a poor weekend, Jackson simply shrugged his shoulders, put it down to experience and has vowed to return stronger from it.

Jackson told BTCC.net: ““Had there not been any contact I certainly wouldn’t have gone off the track. It was annoying at the time to get caught in a wrong place, wrong time situation. I think it was avoidable. But I’m not downhearted about it. We had a lot to come away happy about.”

For his part, Turkington also had reasons to be disappointed after dominating in dreadful conditions his car would not be expected to excel in, only to see his advantage eroded by the safety car.

Again though, there was no throwing of the toys out of the pram after the Ulsterman limped home 7^th .

If the pair clash again we may be hearing a different story – but for now it’s refreshing to see two drivers avoiding the verbals and getting on with the job of driving quickly.