Trackside at Oulton Park

The Kwik Fit BTCC race weekend at Oulton Park was full of dramatic racing action. Colin Turkington achieved his 50th BTCC race win as he recorded victories in both race one and race two. It was a good weekend for team-mate Andrew Jordan too as he achieved podium finishes in the first two races. Cammish was also successful in the first two races taking second position in race one and third in race two.

As one of the circuits where members of the public and media are able to experience the action at close quarters, we took a closer look at the drivers and the cars. In this blog, we share some of our favourite shots in a behind the scenes look into a BTCC race weekend.

Oulton Park is traditionally one of the best attended events of the season and this year was no exception. The bright sunshine as well as the exciting racing this season saw fans flock to the circuit last weekend. Going into the weekend, Turkington was top of the driver’s standings and closing in on 50 BTCC race wins. He had cause for optimism after picking up his only race win on his way to the 2018 title at Oulton Park. After finishing qualifying on pole, Turkington enjoyed a relatively untroubled first race as he held off the challenge of Dan Cammish driving for Halfords Yuasa Racing who finished in 2nd position.

Turkington then had the opportunity to get his 50th BTCC race win in race two at Oulton Park. He took full advantage of this as he took his second race win of the day. Once again, he was joined by Andrew Jordan and Dan Cammish on the podium. This time, it was a BMW 1-2 with Jordan finishing in second ahead of Cammish. Like race one, Turkington controlled the race from start to finish with the drama unfolding behind him. A collision involving Josh Cook and Jack Goff ultimately caused an incident with Chris Smiley’s Honda Civic Type R. This meant that the safety car was out for a considerable period of time. This didn’t disrupt Turkington as he maintained pole for his 50th career win. Sam Tordoff finished in 5th place and took to the podium as the race’s top independent driver.

The third race of the day saw Stephen Jelley take his first BTCC race win in over 10 years in dramatic style. TradePriceCars Jake Hill was drawn on pole and seemed to have held on for his first ever BTCC race win. Matt Neal was challenging Hill throughout the race and looked to have taken the lead on the third lap. Neal seemed to move ahead of Hill but contact was made and Neal’s car ended up across the track with Hill still leading. Butcher pushed for the race win but a misjudgement at Island Bend ended his challenge.

Hill’s win was short-lived as he was penalised by 20 seconds for the incident with Neal which was deemed his fault. This meant that Jelley was a BTCC race winner for the first time since 2009. Tom Oliphant came in second with Sam Tordoff taking the 3rd spot on the podium.

Oulton Park has a reputation for being one of the circuits that enable fans to get up close and personal with the cars and the track. An exciting race weekend saw fans get closer to the action than ever before. Many fans took part in the pitlane walkabout before the races to get the opportunity to see the cars up close before the race.

The first area where fans could get close to the track was near the start-finish line. Being this close to the track meant that things got loud at the start of the race. It was also the perfect location for watching the drivers prepare for the race as well as attempt to overtake as they flew round the circuit. However, many areas of the track allow spectators to see the action close up.

Going into the summer break

The Kwik Fit BTCC takes a break until the beginning of August when we head to Snetterton. With Colin Turkington leading the driver's standing, he'll be looking to add to his 50 career BTCC race wins. However, the other drivers will be sure to give him plenty to think about when the BTCC action restarts.