RACE REPORT // TITLE ON THE LINE AS BTCC VISITS ROCKINGHAM

Last weekend's penultimate British Touring Car meeting of 2009 saw a double race win for Stephen Jelley from Team RAC along with a single victory for the Chevrolet Laccetti of Jason Plato. CTD was there to catch all the action as the championship momentum shifted throughout the day from one rival to another and the season end pressure began to mount... [read more]

With the end of the 2009 series only two weeks away the three races at Rockingham were always going to be crucial in the run up to the season finale at Brands Hatch.  The nature of the Rockingham venue with its flat out banked turn was always going to favour outright top speed or good preservation of front tyres and so it was no surprise to see Chevrolet and BMW both at the sharp end of the field.  With qualifying going the way of Jason Plato's Chevy and with at the same time Colin Turkington succumbing to his worst qualifying position of the year Turkington's team mate Stephen Jelley would be left a major role to play in the days proceedings.
 
Race One:
 
Race one saw poleman Plato lose his hard fought pole from Saturday as he was passed by the fast starting BMW's of Johnathan Adam (Below) and Stephen Jelley away from the line and then dropped another place to the 320si of Rob Collard at Yentwood.  Onto lap five and Collard ran wide at Gracelands the fast left hander and Plato regained fourth in a flash. With Adam coming under increasing pressure from the West Surrey run BMW of Jelley it wasn't long before the former F3 driver made his move for the lead with a text-book clean pass into the Deane hairpin on lap nine. The same could not be said of Plato's pass on Adam on the next lap as he gave him a gentle tap to the rear three quarter which pushed the youngster wide. Turkington had made good progress from his lowly grid slot and by lap 15 was into the points but disaster was soon to strike the Irishman as he suffered a spin at Deane while battling with the Chevrolet of James Nash. Turkington would rejoin the track and again have to fight for a single point which he managed at the fall of the chequer.

So Stehen Jelley took his first BTCC win amid jubilant scenes amongst his Motorbase crew. With Plato second and Fabrizio Giovanardi coming home in sixth Turkington certainly knew he was going to be in for very long afternoon.
 
Race One Results:
 
01 Stephen Jelley                BMW 320SI
02 Jason Plato                    Chevrolet Lacetti
03 Matt Jackson                 Chevrolet Lacetti
04 Rob Collard                     BMW 320SI
05 Johnathan Adam             BMW 320SI
06 Fabrizio Giovanardi          Vauxkhall Vectra
07 Andrew Jordan                 Vauxkhall Vectra  
08 James Nash                    Chevrolet Lacetti
09 Paul O'Neill                     Honda Integra
10 Colin Turkington              BMW 320SI
 
Race one had seen 2006 Champion Matt Neal's Vauxhall Vectra in the wars again after its crash in Saturdays second free practice session with Matt enduring another race ending moment which resulted in him taking a trip to the medical centre with a rather embarrassing complaint caused by the lap belt of his five point harness. The VXR squad had plenty of work to do once again (below) in this their swansong year in the series.

Race Two:
 
With Jelley's BMW now laden with success ballast race two was never going to be a simple proposition for the relaxed Englishman.  Away from the line and the BMW was able to hit the front courtesy of rear wheel traction but by lap seven Matt Jackson who had passed Plato into the first turn slipped inside the RAC BMW into the hairpin pushing his rival wide and cleverly allowing Plato through at the same time. So now it was a Team RML one two and just a question of when Jackson would have to concede to Plato who by now was really relishing the potential points haul over his two championship rivals.Jelley would drop back down the order still further being passed by Giovanardi (Below), Adam and Turkington.

Onto the fifteenth lap and Jackson inevitably conceded to his team mate Plato at the hairpin which allowed the former BTCC champion to record his 50th career win in the series. At this point Plato (Below) was very much back in the title running having heavily outscored both his rivals in the first two encounters.

Race Two Results:

01 Jason Plato Chevrolet Lacetti
02 Matt jackson Chevrolet Lacetti
03Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxkhall Vectra
04 Colin Turkington BMW 320SI
05 Johnathan Adam BMW 320SI
06 Stephen Jelley BMW 320SI
07 James Nash Chevrolet Lacetti
08 Andrew Jordan Vauxkhall Vectra
09 Tom Chilton Ford Focus
10 Johnny Herbert Honda Civic

Race Three:

So with the sun still shining on the Northamptonshire venue the scene was set for the reverse grid race three. Tom Chilton was drawn on pole in his Ford Focus and the tension between the three title rivals was reaching boiling point. Race three didnot disapoint and will go down in the history of the BTCC as one of it's very best. As the lights went out Chilton (Below) converted his pole into a lead as the field funnelled down offf of the oval section into the Deane haipin. The Focus was followed by Andrew Jordan in the third VXR Vectra and a fast starting Stephen Jelley and James Nash in the third Lacetti.

With the order at the front remaining stable for the first 6 laps it was Colin Turkington who made the first real move of the race by passing Nash to move into fourth. Onto lap 8 and Jordan (Below) forcefully made his move on Chilton at the end of the run down into the hairpin.  Chilton had given the Focus it's first ever showing at the front of the field but now was beginning to suffer from it's age old bug bear straight line speed.

Stephen Jelley was soon able to make his move on the Ford and set off in the chase for his second win of the day. Back behind the leading trio things were hotting up as Turkington who by now had Plato glued to his rear bumper slid inside Chilton for third into Deane.  Plato soon followed his nemesis through and once again attatched himself to the Irishman's tail.
 
Onto lap tweve and Jelley passed Jordan for the lead at Deane only for the young ex-rallycross star to brave it out round the outside to regain the position into the next right hander.  Jelley was not done yet and soon made the lead his own for good,this time with another great pass.  Into the second hairpin of the Rockingham layout named after Zandvoort's first turn "Tarzan" Plato made his move on Turkington for third. Ambitious, yes! but not really contact worthy of a stewards enquiry as the Lacetti tapped into the BMW sending it wide.  Turkington however was not going to go down without a fght and solidly kept his right foot slammed down against the bulkhead. This served to push Plato's car back inside the turn only to see the following Chevy of James Nash collide heavily with the right front corner of the RML Lacetti instantly damaging its steering.  Turkington had survived and Plato was left to limp slowly back into the pitlane ruing "What might have been"  Giovanardi meanwhile had been watching the drama unfold waiting to pick up the pieces but had not banked on a extremely fired up Johnny Herbert in the Dynamics Honda Civic.  Lap 14 saw the former F1 star slice his way inside GIovanardi at "Tarzan" with both pilots then battling it out door handle to door handle through the tight Brook chicane. As Gio and Johnny moved onto the exit of Rockingham's turn four banking they collided resulting in the Italian's steering being damaged and his title hopes taking a severe beating.  As the flag fell it was a second win of the day for a truly delighted Stephen Jelley (Below) who commented "I suffered badly from nerves in the opening race but once I managed to take the lead in race three it all became alot calmer and I began to relax. "Today has been a real turning point for me my first ever win and now I feel I can begin to relax a bit"

Race Three Results:
 
01 Stephen Jelley       BMW 320SI
02 Andrew Jordan       Vauxkhall Vectra
03 Tom Chilton           Ford Focus
04 Colin Turkington     BMW 320SI
05 Matt Jackson         Chevrolet Lacetti 
06 Johnathan Adam    BMW 320SI
07 Johnny Herbert      Honda Civic
08 Gordon Shedden   Seat Leon
09 Tom Onslow-Cole   Ford Focus
10 Martin Johnson     Vauxkhall Astra
 
At the post race interviews Turkington's relief was their for all to see as he celebrated his 4th place, "Today was tough"he commented I was either going to win or be put in the wall but thankfully we managed to rescue the situation and the weekend has been saved"
 
Giovanardi was quite robust in his criticism of Herbert post race saying " He is a guest driver and he drives with an unusual style, my car is wrecked and I just don't know why he had to drive into me at least three times.
 
Championship points after round 27 of 30:
 
01   Colin Turkington         249
02   Fabrizio Giovanardi    236
03   Jason Plato              221
04   Matt Jackson           165
05   Matt Neal                 153
 
So with Turkington managing to come away from Rockingham still with a slender advantage the race for the 2009 title will I am sure have many more twists before it is resolved.  In two weeks time the iconic Brands Hatch GP circuit will see the 2009 BTCC title resolved. CTD will be there so "watch this space"
 
Additional Rockingham Images:

Harry Vaulkhard's Chevrolet Lacetti kicks up the dust.

Stephen Jelley deep in thought following his race one victory.

Jelley's BMW 320SI leads the field.

Photo/Editorial: Neil Tozer