Charles Rainford held off Ricky Collard to take victory in the final race of the British Touring Car Championship’s fourth round at Oulton Park.
Rainford and Collard, who started third and fifth respectively, were the only two drivers in the top five on the grid to be using the soft tyres, so both looked in the pound seats for this race.
But two safety car periods limited their advantage of TOCA Turbo Boost laps over Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish. Even so, Ingram could make no further progress from his third place, from 10th on the grid.
But he has made inroads into the points advantage of Ash Sutton, who had an uncharacteristically subdued race, third of those on the hard Goodyears, to ninth. Ingram has now trimmed the gap to 48 points.
Chris Smiley was on pole with hard tyres on his Restart Racing Hyundai i30 N Fastback, and several nibbles at his rear bumper from the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport could not unsettle the Northern Irishman.
The race soon went under safety car conditions. Aron Taylor-Smith lost it at the first corner of Old Hall, and as he slewed across the track he collected Adam Morgan, sending the Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon into the barrier.
Photo by: JEP
After the restart, Rainford swept around the outside of Smiley at Cascades to take the lead, while Collard slipped his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai down the inside of Smiley at Lodge to snatch second place.
Ingram made a superb lunge down the inside of Cammish’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium at Old Hall for fourth, and both quickly demoted Smiley too.
Up front, Rainford had pulled out over two seconds on Collard when the safety car appeared for a second time. Tom Chilton had launched off the kerb at the Dentons kink onto a collision course with the Alliance Ford of an angry Lewis Selby, who as a result smacked side-on into the barrier at Cascades.
The race went green with six laps remaining, and Rainford held on to defeat Collard by 1.319s. Ingram and Cammish were also close at hand, as was fifth-placed Josh Cook in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport.
“It was a bit risky with Chris [Smiley], but fair play to him, he left me plenty of space on the outside of Cascades,” said Rainford. “After that I was just trying to keep my head down. Even after the second safety car the pace was just unbelievable.”
Of Collard’s constant headlight use, Rainford joked: “I wasn’t sure if it was Ricky’s teeth or the lights to be fair! Ricky and I have been working so well together all day. In the first race [with both on hard tyres] I slotted in behind him.”
Photo by: JEP
Smiley was able to hold off Dan Rowbottom’s Plato Mercedes until the penultimate lap, but the Midlander finally got through for sixth from the Restart Hyundai, which was the highest-placed car using the hard tyres in this race.
Dexter Patterson drove his hard-shod Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon to eighth, with Sutton, who had gambled on a wetter set-up in anticipation of the rain that never properly materialised, and Aiden Moffat’s PMR Audi completing the top 10.
BTCC Oulton Park – Race 3 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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