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British Touring Car Championship
Oulton Park - Race 1 Report - 8/6/14

By MJP Media | 8 June 2014

Colin Turkington consolidated his magnificent qualifying performance with a lights to flag victory for eBay Motors in the first race from Oulton Park.

Colin Turkington is delighted with his race 1 victory

Following consistent performances in both practice sessions yesterday, Colin Turkington qualified his eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport in pole position for the first race of the day from Oulton Park alongside the MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save MG6 of Jason Plato. This year the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is using the longer 'International' circuit which was last used during the 'Supertouring' era.

With the other Honda drivers struggling in the variable conditions, Gordon Shedden qualified his Civic Tourer in 3rd place to start on the 2nd row of the grid. The next highest placed Honda was reigning BTCC champion Andrew Jordan way down in 13th place ahead of Shedden's team-mate Matt Neal in 14th. Rob Collard did well to qualify his eBay Motors BMW in 4th place to join Shedden on row two of the grid with Sam Tordoff and Rob Austin on row 3.

Colin Turkington followed by Rob Collard and Jason Plato

As the lights went out to start the race, all the front running cars got away well with Colin Turkington leading the pack into the first corner. By the end of the first lap, Rob Collard in the sister eBay Motors BMW had moved up from 4th to 2nd behind team-mate Turkington while Jason Plato had dropped to 3rd and Gordon Shedden to 4th. Rob Austin in the Exocet Racing Audi A4 also made up a place on the first lap, passing MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save's Sam Tordoff.

Following a good qualifying session in the Laser Tool Racing Chevrolet Cruze, there was disappointment for young Scottish driver Aiden Moffat when a broken spark plug meant he was forced to retire at the end of the first lap. The team were left working frantically on the car's damaged engine in order to return to the action later this afternoon.

Jason Plato, Colin Turkington and Rob Collard

With the leading cars holding their positions to the end of the race it was an impressive victory for Colin Turkington with team-mate Rob Collard an excellent 2nd and Jason Plato completing the podium places. Gordon Shedden finished 4th with Rob Austin 5th and Sam Tordoff 6th. With Shedden 4th, it was disappointing to see his team-mate Matt Neal finish down in 13th place. Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan fared even worse, ending the race in 15th place.

With the ever present threat of rain, the teams will have one eye on the weather forecasts as they prepare for the second of today's three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races from this classic Cheshire circuit.

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