Colin Turkington took the spoils in the BTCC finale at Croft, as the Team BMW man claimed his 13th career win at the North Yorkshire venue.
The four-time champion has often shied away from his 'King of Croft' tag over the years, but this proved to be a vital victory as the Northern Irishman kept his championship challenge on-track.
"The 'King of Croft' lives on for another year! A win is a great way to end my day. Even sitting on the grid in P1, looking good, I wasn’t believing really that I could do that because you never know the pace or the handling of the car. But once I got through the first few laps I knew the car was better than I’d had all day. I could see Ash [Sutton] was behind Gordon [Shedden] and probably didn’t want to take too much risk, so I just got my head down. Big credit to Team BMW, they had a lot of work to do between races one and two but it paid off!
"I took a look every time coming out of the hairpin and I could still see a black car in front of a blue car so I was quite pleased about that. But I really enjoyed that. As I’ve said many times, Croft is a great circuit to drive and especially when the 3 Series is in the sweet spot. It’s pure delight.
"I’m not sure if P3 [in the Standings] is good or bad. It’s good points and great to get a win, whatever weight we have to carry at Silverstone. We’ll just plan our strategy accordingly. But we’re all going to enjoy this win for now. It was hard earned from race one and race two. Race two we were in the wars and nearly didn’t survive, so it’s great to convert it."
Halfords Racing with Cataclean's Gordon Shedden equalled his best result of the season so far with second as he held off championship leader Ash Sutton, although the Laser Tools Racing man still scored an important extra point for setting the fastest lap.
"It was a tough day yesterday, but we clawed our way back and clawed our way through," said Shedden. "This is a great reward for everyone at Halfords Racing with Cataclean, here on the podium that looked a million miles away! There’s nothing like ten or eleven laps of having Ash Sutton on your back bumper the whole way through just to focus the mind.
"He’s got a championship to win and that’s got to be his focus. He’s not racing me in the championship, and I need every point I can get. He needs to think of the bigger picture, which he did. He had a couple of goes and in a couple of places where I was stronger I could kind of cover it off a bit. But we’ll leave reasonably happy with that result."
In truth, the contest was somewhat of a procession by BTCC standards and it was title contenders Tom Ingram (Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com) and Josh Cook (BTC Racing) that secured fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Aiden Moffat in the second Laser Tools Racing Infiniti.
MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square's Jake Hill rounded off a very productive day with seventh, although a mid-race skirmish with Adam Morgan's Ciceley Motorsport-run BMW slightly blotted his copybook.
Senna Proctor edged Daniel Rowbottom in a Honda Civic Type R battle for eighth, whilst Tom Chilton was finally provided with some reward for plugging away all weekend – a top ten finish for the Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport man.
It's a quick turnaround now for the UK's premier motorsport series as Rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the 2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship take place at Silverstone next weekend (25/26 September).
2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 3 – Croft
1 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW 16 laps
2 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +3.500s
3 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +3.716s
4 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +7.282s
5 Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing +7.896s
6 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +16.730s
7 Jake HILL (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +18.360s
8 Senna PROCTOR(GBR) BTC Racing +18.979s
9 Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +20.363s
10 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +20.810s
11 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +21.279s
12 Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions +22.409s
13 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +22.600s
14 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +23.383s
15 Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +26.709s
16 Sam SMELT (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +34.310s
17 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +34.872s
18 Andy NEATE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +36.467s
19 Jack BUTEL (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +36.939s
20 Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading +45.435s
21 Nick HALSTEAD (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +1 lap
22 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +1 lap
23 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +1 lap
24 Chris SMILEY (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +11 laps
25 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +15 laps
26 Jade EDWARDS (GBR) PHSC with BTC Racing +15 laps
27 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +15 laps
28 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +16 laps
29 Jack MITCHELL (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +16 laps
