Tom Onslow-Cole managed to achieve what he failed to do two weeks ago at Donington Park and took his first win of the season in Round 10 at Thruxton, duly following it with another victory in Round 11. Jason Plato salvaged what he could of a disastrous weekend with a victory in Round 12, having earlier been excluded from the results after failing a ride height check. There were punctures for several drivers, with Fabrizio Giovanardi, Darren Turner and Gordon Shedden notable sufferers.
In qualifying Onslow-Cole repeated the stunning form that he showed at Donington Park, completing only one flying lap but still comfortably securing pole position from team-mate Giovanardi by 0.260 seconds. Both Team Halfords cars and Matt Neal also went well in the qualifying session. The diesel-powered SEAT’s, expected to go strongly around the Thruxton circuit due to the extra power that the TDi engine gives them qualified 6th and 7th.
Race One
At the start of Race 1 Fabrizio Giovanardi got a better start than the pole sitter to draw alongside, but as the pack headed into the Campbell, Cobb and Seagrave complex of corners it was Gordon Shedden who sneaked past to take the lead. Onslow-Cole held on to second whilst Jason Plato, having made an excellent start, overtook Giovanardi for third.
Colin Turkington in the rear-wheel drive BMW took full advantage of his starting prowess and jumped into 5th from 8th, having not made such an obvious jump start as he did last time out at Donington Park. Doing the opposite at the start was Team Halfords’ Tom Chilton, who slid from 5th to 8th.
At the front Shedden still led Onslow-Cole, the leading two opening up a slight gap from the battle of Jason Plato, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Colin Turkington. Plato’s defensive driving to keep his championship rival behind allowed the cars of Matt Neal and Darren Turner to catch up, with the group racing just centimetres apart at speeds of around 110mph. Turkington managed to pass Giovanardi on lap 7, benefitting from the BMW’s now up to temperature tyres.
He completed the move on Turner putting him into fifth place through the complex, taking the outside line for Campbell and gaining the advantage through Cobb, much like Swede Rickard Rydell used to do.
Lap 13 saw an increasingly racy-looking Turkington get a good exit from the club chicane, allowing him to draw alongside Plato through Allard corner. He made the move stick and showed how much the SEAT Leon was holding him up by moving clear straight away, Plato obviously struggling through the chicane with understeer as a result of the heavier diesel engine and success ballast.
At the front Tom Onslow-Cole, untroubled since Shedden’s puncture, held on to take victory by a comfortable margin of 2.9 seconds, with Turkington third and Giovanardi completing the podium. Plato, who finished third on the track, was later excluded for failing the ride height check, losing him all 10 points and pushing him to the back of the grid for race two.
The race was very much down to the wire for the John Guest Racing Honda Integra’s of Mike and Andrew Jordan, with Mike just pipping his son to ninth place by a tiny margin of 0.008 seconds!
Commenting on his first victory of 2008, Onslow-Cole said “I am really happy. It was a shame I couldn’t fight more with Gordon but I’m confident I would have been able to overtake him because the car just felt so good.” The result meant that he would once again start from the front for the second race of the day.
A disconsolate Plato later said of his exclusion, “We’ve been well and truly kicked very low by what I believe was a very poor decision by the organisers. We infringed the regulations because we collected some damage; it was clear to see, there was no performance advantage and we had evidence to prove that the damage had been caused by a hit from behind by Fabrizio Giovanardi.”
Race Two
Starting from the front at race two, Tom Onslow-Cole lost out to the BMW of Turkington who made a similarly good getaway as in race one but this time managed to take the lead. Onslow-Cole slipped down to fifth after a poor start, the race one winner also carrying the maximum success ballast of 45kg. Further down the order Team RAC’s Stephen Jelley and Andrew Jordan made contact at the complex, spinning the younger Jordan out and down to last place. There were also incidents for Martyn Bell, whose Arkas Racing Vauxhall Astra ended the race in the tyre barrier, whilst Chris Stockton and Tom Chilton both ran off the track in seperate incidents.
The first lap ended with the safety car being deployed whilst Bell’s car was removed, and on lap 6 racing resumed.
Turkington’s lead wouldn’t last long after the safety car, as on lap 7 entering the club chicane at the end of the lap he made slight contact with Giovanardi whilst rigorously defending his position. The touch was enough to unsettle both cars, who skipped the chicane, and Giovanardi emerged as race leader.
With the Italian beginning to open up a slight lead, Turkington was coming under pressure from Turner who attempted a move on the Irishman at the chicane on lap 11. Turkington held the position as Turner lost ground in the attempted pass, allowing the Vauxhall’s of Neal and Onslow-Cole to make it three abreast going into Allard.
As Neal attempted to complete the pass on the SEAT the two cars made contact and came within inches of hitting the wall, both cars miraculously rejoining with no damage and minimal position loss!
Jason Plato had a storming drive through the field, starting from 24th he would eventually finish seventh. On the opening lap he made up ten positions, and on lap ten Plato passed Chilton, Jelley and Kane all in the space of two corners. However, Plato’s focus by now would undoubtedly be on looking towards race three and getting as best a starting position as possible.
“I was surprised to suffer from a tyre failure considering I did everything to look after the tyres well, but it’s just one of those things,” commented Giovanardi after the race. To prevent such a tyre failure in the final race of the day VX Racing decided to reduce the amount of camber on the tyres.
Following his second victory of the day it was up to Tom Onslow-Cole to select the random reverse grid order for race three, which placed Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden on the front row of the grid for the final race, the top nine being reversed.
Race Three
Gordon Shedden made another impressive start, taking the lead from Andrew Jordan through the series of corners at the complex. However cruel luck was to strike the Scot yet again as he suffered a mirror incident to race one, picking up a puncture on exactly the same lap as that race.
After the reverse grid placed him eighth on the grid, Turkington was having a hard time emulating his two second-placed finishes of the previous races. Battling hard throughout the race, he used the BMW’s better tyre wear to make his way up to sixth by the end of the race.
Andrew Jordan impressively held his own for most of the race, maintaining a podium position until two laps from home when the engine cruelly cut out. Nonetheless, the ‘Young man’ was pleased with the day’s racing: “I think I’ve proved a lot today and I’m looking forward to Croft,” he commented.
At the front however it was finally coming good for Jason Plato as he took the lead on lap 8, a lead he would not lose. Commenting on his second win of the season, Plato said “It’s been a great end to a very disappointing day.”
btcc:action Original Reporting
If only Andy Jordan could have held on to that podium position in race three it would have been great!