Rowbottom triumphs in hard-fought final race

Dan Rowbottom emerged as winner from a hard-fought final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Thruxton.

The bearded Midlander started his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST from fifth, but made a blistering start to get up to third place when the lights went out.

When poleman James Dorlin hit the kerb at Segrave, that appeared to unsettle the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla, and now Rowbottom was second.

The leader was reigning champion Jake Hill, who used the rear-wheel-drive traction of his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport to launch from third on the grid to the lead within 100 yards.

Hill had excess TOCA Turbo Boost in his pocket compared to Rowbottom and the other leading contenders, but could not prevent the Ford from spearing into the lead at Segrave on the second lap.

Hill came back at Rowbottom and, after the leading duo shook off an early change from the Alliance Ford of Dan Cammish, the race appeared to be between this pair.

But a mid-race safety car, caused when ninth-placed Adam Morgan put his left-side wheels on the grass entering Allard and fired into the barrier, brought more contenders into play.

Cammish was on the move at the restart and went around the outside of Hill into the chicane, but after one more lap of TTB usage to put a gap between himself and the rest, he had none left.

Meanwhile, Ash Sutton went around the outside of Hill at the left-hand Noble kink, but contact to the Alliance Ford’s left rear from the BMW sent both off track, and Sutton into a spin.

While Hill was forced to the pits to have grass removed from his radiator, Sutton had remarkably dropped only to seventh.

Tom Ingram saved his two laps of TTB for the final stages of the race, but the boost-less Cammish did enough of a defensive job over the penultimate tour to leave Rowbottom with enough of a gap in hand over the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai once it had passed Cammish up Woodham Hill.

Senna Proctor completed a strong BTCC comeback with fourth in his Excelr8 Hyundai, while Sutton got past the Restart Racing Hyundais of Chris Smiley (sixth) and Dan Lloyd (seventh) late on for fifth.

Mikey Doble soared through from the back of the grid for eighth in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra from Aron Taylor-Smith (Speedworks Toyota) and Josh Cook’s One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R.