Three safety car periods and a wild ride across the final chicane couldn't prevent pole-sitter Adam Morgan from winning a thrilling Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship finale at Thruxton, as the Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport man led from start-to-finish.
Morgan fended off the hard-charging Team BMW car of Colin Turkington throughout the race, and with both drivers having been selected by the German marque to score Manufacturer points during the weekend, it was a firm but fair fight until the finish.
Various incidents involving the likes of Jade Edwards, Gordon Shedden, Ollie Jackson, Carl Boardley and Sam Smelt meant that the racing action was halted on three occasions, with Morgan having to get the restart right each time in order to stay in front.
Morgan's main fright came with three laps remaining when the Ciceley star out-braked himself through the final chicane, enforcing an off-track run, but the #33 machine returned unscathed and with his lead intact.
Second place represented important championship points for Turkington, whilst BTC Racing's Senna Proctor completed the podium, with MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square's Jake Hill in fourth.
Tom Ingram had yet another scrap with his old team – Speedworks Motorsport – as his #80 Hyundai went wheel-to-wheel with rival Rory Butcher.
Ingram eventually won the fight in his Ginsters-backed Hyundai, as the manufacturer-backed Toyota of Butcher took sixth.
Josh Cook – having enjoyed a stellar weekend so far with a win and a second place – held station to take seventh, ahead of the Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall of Jason Plato.
The Draper Tools-supported Hyundai of Chris Smiley was ninth, as he was one of a few drivers to muscle tenth-placed Ash Sutton down the order.
Adam Morgan said: "It’s always difficult, for some reason it feels like for me on reverse grid pole they throw everything at us to make things really difficult: three safety cars, and Colin on my tail the whole way round. But we’ve made changes throughout the weekend and the car’s got better and better. We’ve put a bit of weight in the car and it feels better again.
"Under immense pressure from Colin all race, and I’ve been training for this really hard at home on the sim with my engineer Steve and the guys at iZone, and what we’ve just done now is exactly what we’ve practiced. So I knew I could do it and I felt good, but still made a mistake so I’m going to get told off when I’m back there next week."
Colin Turkington said: "I’ve been [in Adam’s position] before. Thruxton is a challenging circuit and, for someone making the switch from front-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive, braking is one of those challenges. I could see Adam had a massive lockup and as I was going through the chicane, he was about 2.5 seconds up the road. He drove a really good race, I didn’t really have an answer.
"I could get within a car’s length at any stage within the circuit, but with the high-speed nature of Thruxton, especially through Church, the understeer just ramps up when you’re very close behind somebody, so they just get away on you. I’m pleased on the whole with my day. It’s been a steady day of improvement, 12th, sixth and then second, so a good points-scoring exercise and nice to get the BMW on the podium."
“It’s really important, obviously Ash [Sutton is consistently scoring big points and I needed to not let him get any further ahead. But it is what it is. You can’t pull a rabbit out of the hat. You’ve just got to keep working hard, improve the car and move forward, which is what I did today. We go to some great circuits next. Croft, Silverstone – my home Grand Prix – so we’ve got lots to look forward to.”
Senna Proctor said: "I thought I could win that one before the race, but it wasn’t meant to be. The rear-wheel drive cars pulled away from the line quite well and then the safety car coming out after one lap gave them chance to get temperature in their tyres.
"I was just playing follow the leader then. I had a bit of pressure from Jake [Hill] behind, he was a little better than me coming out of the complex, so I was just managing that and then I was good through the fast stuff. So we played to the Honda’s strengths and my strengths and managed to hold on to third, which is a great result for everyone at BTC Racing."
2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 3 – Thruxton
1 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport 19 laps
2 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.313s
3 Senna PROCTOR(GBR) BTC Racing +0.767s
4 Jake HILL (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +1.344s
5 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +2.728s
6 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +3.022s
7 Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing +3.412s
8 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +3.653s
9 Chris SMILEY (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +3.954s
10 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +4.440s
11 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +4.750s
12 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +5.660s
13 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +5.925s
14 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +6.969s
15 Jack BUTEL (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +7.570s
16 Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +7.618s
17 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +8.029s
18 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +8.486s
19 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +8.838s
20 Rick PARFITT (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +9.410s
21 Jack MITCHELL (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +14.049s
22 Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading +21.820s
23 Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions +1 lap
24 Paul RIVETT (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +3 laps
25 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +6 laps
26 Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +10 laps
27 Sam SMELT (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +11 laps
28 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +18 laps
29 Jade EDWARDS (GBR) PHSC with BTC Racing +19 laps
