Four things we learned from a dramatic weekend at Croft

Tough day for title chargers

At what has historically been a good place for West Surrey Racing’s BMWs, Colin Turkington suffered what can politely be called a difficult weekend. Despite opening his account for the day with a podium in race one, the four-time champion couldn’t make it past the first corner in the second encounter, sliding across the gravel and into the Clervaux tyre barrier. Starting from the back of the grid for the third and final race of the day, Turkington knew he needed to work hard to get as many points as possible from the day, but once again his race lasted just one corner before a mechanical issue dropped him to the back of the field once again. Such was Turkington’s luck that for the first time this season he leaves a race meeting not in the top two in the standings, sitting third and 12 points behind Ash Sutton.

It was a difficult day for both of the main title protagonists, with Ash Sutton ending up pointing the wrong way on the opening lap of the day, courtesy of Rory Butcher’s Ford. Dropping to the back of the field, Sutton did what Sutton does and carved his way back up the pack, finishing fifth at the line before being promoted to fourth after a judicial position switch with Butcher.

Sutton’s style bites back

After a stress-filled race one and with his title rival sitting in the gravel at Clervaux at the start of race two, everything started to look rosy for the Infiniti driver. It was then that Sutton’s polarising driving style came back to bite him. While many love watching the rough and “give no quarter” body language when he’s behind the wheel, his critics felt vindicated as he lunged up the inside of Jake Hill while fighting for second and was just a passenger as the damaged bodywork sliced through his right-front tyre. With Turkington non-scoring, you have to wonder just how important those extra points would have been come the end of the season.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been a true Ash Sutton-style day had he not worked his way back through the field again and despite starting from the bottom of the grid in race three, the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti scored yet another top five result.

Not just a two horse race

While Turkington and Sutton both suffered less-than-ideal weekends, while the mice were away, the cats played. Both Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish racked up some decent points to close up the title race, as their late season momentum continued. Ingram, who would have sat on pole had a failed component not caused him to fail the ride height check at the end of qualifying, worked his way up to 13^th from the back in race one, before gaining a further nine positions in race two to finish fourth, and be the only non-Honda in the top six in the process.

Starting from third in race three, he pulled off move of the day as he took the lead from BTC Racing’s Tom Chilton through the fast Jim Clark Esses and, despite a late charge from Honda’s Dan Cammish. Cammish, meanwhile, was almost Ingram’s shadow throughout the day. After finishing 10^th in race one, he came in directly behind the Toyota in both races one and two and now sits just seven points behind Ash Sutton and his consistency seems to be tipping the odds in his favour…

Cook doubles up

At the start of the year this writer put Josh Cook as his dark horse for the championship, and after the first four meetings I was very much feeling the egg on my face. The egg has now been replaced with a Jeremy Clarkson-esque smug face as Cook has proven over the last two meetings that if he has the luck, he’s up there. Since Thruxton Cook has finished every race in the top ten and at Croft he really made the most of the pace at his disposal.

Starting from pole (thanks to Ingram’s ride height failure), Cook converted for a lights-to-flag win in race one, before attempting to do it all again in race two. It almost ended in tears, however, as he was hounded by the longest-serving driver on the grid and three-time champion Matt Neal. With Neal recently suggesting this, his 30^th, may be his final year in the championship, you could see just how much he wanted the win and he did… sort of. A very robust move saw Neal take the lead, but also saw Cook shoved out the way, and while Neal won on the road, the officials duly swapped the positions post-race and Cook took an impressive double win, leading a Honda 1-2-3 with Jake Hill coming third in the older shaped Civic. Cook could only manage eighth in race three, but it was enough to rise him back into the top 10 in points for the first time since Donington Park.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.