Turkington heads Team RAC 1-2 at Croft

Colin Turkington has won the opening race of the day for Team RAC, who secured a dream result as Stephen Jelley finished in second to give the team its first 1-2 finish. Jason Plato finished in third after losing out to Jelley at the start. The race was stopped 2 laps early after an accident involving Harry Vaulkhard and Tom Chilton that left both cars with considerable damage.

Click here for full Round 13 Results.

Turkington took his fourth win of the year in dominant fashion, leading every one of the race’s 13 laps. The Northern Irishman also benefitted from bonus points for pole position, leading the race and fastest lap to move clear of Matt Neal in the championship battle. Team RAC’s day was made even sweeter by Jelley securing his first-ever podium finish in the championship.

Finishing in third was Racing Silverline’s Jason Plato, with Rob Collard finishing in fourth after having started 10th. The Airwaves BMW driver got off to a sensational start as he muscled his way into fifth place by the first corner. Fabrizio Giovanardi also put in a strong drive to take fifth, after having also started from a low grid position in 13th.

In finishing in sixth position Matt Neal has lost the points lead to Colin Turkington. The Vauxhall driver’s race was not without incident, as

Jonathan Adam finished seventh after having benefitted from the duelling James Thompson and James Nash early in the race. Paul O’Neill finished in ninth, whilst David Pinkney scored another point to take his total this season so far to 3.

The race was brought to a premature halt when Harry Vaulkhard, who had already lost positions to Collard and Giovanardi on the previous couple of laps, had a sizeable accident with Tom Chilton. The accident was preceeded by Vaulkhard and Neal going side-by-side through the high-speed Jim Clark Esses, with the Chevrolet driver spinning into the infield at high speed. This led to the youngster picking up a puncture, causing him to spin in front of Chilton at the Complex. Chilton had nowhere to go, and the two made heavy contact forcing both drivers out and the race to end early.

Mat Jackson was running in a strong fourth position when he put a wheel on the grass on the exit of the chicane and spun into the barriers. Having earlier spent the morning on a drip, the 28-year-old has opted to pull out of the day’s remaining races as he was close to passing out when the accident occurred.