Reigning Champion and Team BMW driver Colin Turkington secured his second win of the 2020 British Touring Car Season with victory in Round 5 at Brands Hatch ahead of Toyota's Tom Ingram and Laser Tools Racing's Ashley Sutton as Motorbase's Rory Butcher delivers an incredible comeback from the last row of the grid.
9th August 2020
Starting Grid
Having won the opening race of the day, Dan Cammish started the second race at Brands Hatch from Pole with title rival Colin Turkington alongside him. The grid is set from the positions the drivers finished the first race of the day in. However, ballast is added so the driver who starts on Pole has the maximum of 60kg of added weight. The amount of weight is reduced by 6kg for each driver in the top ten with tenth having 6kg of ballast.
Rory Butcher and Matt Neal, who each had their own incidents in the previous race, a puncture and a collision, started in 25th and 26th with no ballast and were ones to look out for.
Race Report
As predicted, it was a lightning start by the rear-wheel drive BMW of Turkington to take the lead just metres from the starting grid as a poor start by Cammish allowed Jackson and Tom Ingram to sail past. A great run through Westfield and Dingle Dell saw Ingram get right alongside Jackson with the Toyota Corolla driver managing to dive down the inside for second at Sheen Curve.
Onto Lap 2 and the battle for fifth was tight between Tom Chilton, Ashley Sutton and Tom Oliphant as the top four had pulled a gap to the BTC Racing of Chilton. After just one lap, Butcher and Neal had worked their way up into 17th and 18th from the back of the grid.
After setting the fastest lap of the race, Ingram closed on Turkington with the gap narrowed down to three tenths as Cammish looked to gain lost ground and hustled Jackson for third. Into Stirlings, Cammish made his move as Bobby Thompson and Michael Crees came together. With the two cars stranded, the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 4.
The two drivers battled hard down the straight leading to Westfield with both clashing several times before race-ending contact was made which resulted in both ending up stuck in the gravel. Both drivers exited their cars and showed their anger and frustration by slamming their car doors.
Racing resumed on Lap 9 with Turkington leading the way with the race now extended to 18 Laps. Turkington, Ingram and Cammish made a break with the trio separated by less than six tenths as Jackson and the rest played catch-up. Onto Lap 10, Chilton dived down the inside of Jackson for fourth into Paddock Hill Bend. Unbelievably, Chilton ran wide exiting Hawthorns and slowed with a suspected puncture.
After battling with Adam Morgan, Hill's race came to a spluttering end as engine gremlins once again cut his race short. He pulled off the track at a marshal post near Pilgrims Drop as the leading trio's gap to those behind increased to over five seconds.
Sutton's patience finally paid off as he was able to get alongside Jackson into Clearways with the Laser Tools Racing driver making his way up into fourth. Butcher's incredible fightback continued as he made his way past Morgan for sixth with a dive to the inside of Surtees.
A poor run out of Clearways allowed Butcher to get alongside Motorbase Performance team-mate Jackson down the start/finish straight with Butcher taking fifth into Paddock Hill Bend.
On Lap 16, Cammish slowed from third as the Honda Yuasa Racing driver rejoined the circuit after running wide into Surtees. Cammish's mechanical problem promotes Sutton to third and Butcher to fourth as he crawled back to the pits.
With 17 Laps completed, Turkington had pulled out a comfortable gap to Ingram behind and crossed the line to win for the second time this season as Sutton completed the podium places. Cammish never made it back to the pits as whatever stopped working, started working again with the Honda driver finishing in 19th.
Round 5 Result
