It was as if every BTCC fan’s Christmas had come early in race three, as the arrival of rain saw a mixture of tyre strategies up and down the grid. Tom Oliphant and Jake Hill were the highest profile drivers to take the slick tyre gamble, and early laps showed they’d made a mistake, with Oliphant dropping from second down to outside of the points in a number of laps.
As the track dried the pendulum swung back into the favour of those on slick rubber, and nine laps in Jake Hill drove around leader Ash Sutton at the fast back section of the track. Almost as soon as Hill got past, however, the weather turned once again and brought the race back to the wet runners. Sutton drove back around Hill, leaving the MB Motorsport driver to try and hold off Jason Plato in the final laps, finally succumbing to the two-time champion on the final corner of the race.
Gordon Shedden made up for a disappointing first two races to finish fourth from the back of the grid, while Dan Lloyd rounded out the top five to secure a strong finish with teammate Plato for the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall squad. Further back, penalties for both Tom Ingram and Josh Cook for a grid infraction gave them no hope of a good result, while Rory Butcher tangled with Carl Boardley’s Infiniti to provide yet another heavy repair bill for the newly expanded Toyota team.
As a result of his trio of podiums, Hill leaves Thruxton with a one-point lead over Cook, with Plato a further seven points back in third. Meanwhile, Motorbase/Ford left Thruxton with the lead in the Constructors’ standings, with Cook and BTC Racing leading both Independents’ championships. Despite his starring role in race two, Rowbottom sits behind Sam Osborne in the Jack Sears Trophy standings.
It’ll be a month before the BTCC is back in action at Snetterton on the 12th and 13th of June, but that perhaps is a good thing for a number of teams, who now have 33 days to straighten out their body panels…
Check out the 2021 BTCC calendar here.
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.