Turkington stars but Hughes and Lyons roar to Super Touring Power wins

Four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington starred on his Super Touring debut but it was his ‘team boss’ Jason Hughes and historics ace Michael Lyons who won the headline races at Brands Hatch last weekend.

Super Touring Power’s third edition was another festival-style celebration of touring car history, with BTCC stars past and present also shining in Pre-’66, Group 1 and Group A machinery. But Super Tourers were the focus as Turkington nearly added a fairytale chapter to his storied career.

Denied Friday testing while awaiting spare parts, Turkington first drove Hughes’s 2000-vintage Vauxhall Vectra in Saturday qualifying on the Grand Prix circuit. His class shone through with a pole lap 1.6 seconds faster than Lyons in New Zealander Peter Sturgeon’s 1996 ex-David Leslie Honda Accord. “What an experience!” beamed Turkington. “The modern-day touring car is so easy to drive compared to this. The grip and the balance in the high speed, I feel like I’m only just scratching the surface.”

Lyons led the race for half a lap but Turkington was over 10s clear when the Vectra’s front-right suspension failed at Graham Hill Bend on lap nine of 12. Beyond reach of the chasing Conrad Timms (Ford Mondeo), Colin Sowter (Peugeot 406) and Paul McCarthy (Mazda Xedos), Lyons swept to victory.

Sunday’s action switched to the Indy circuit for a pair of races, with Turkington swapping to a BTC Touring MG ZS, familiar from his early BTCC years, as Hughes reclaimed his faster mount.

Suspension drama hit the Vauxhall again in qualifying, leaving Hughes sixth on the grid. But the veteran of 130 BTCC starts immediately jumped to third, then picked off Kiwi Kayne Scott (ex-Matt Neal Nissan Primera) after a safety car. He reeled in Lyons and harried the Honda for several laps before squeezing past the older car at Clark Curve.

“It was the widest Honda Accord I’ve ever known – fair play to him,” said Hughes, whose win from pole position in the finale was comparatively serene, despite Lyons’ pressure.

Scott completed the podium in Sunday’s opener but fell to fifth with a fading battery in the later contest. That allowed countryman Timms into the top three having enjoyed two race-long scraps with Turkington’s MG.

Paul Mensley thundered to a quartet of Group A victories in his flame-spitting Ford Sierra RS500. It might have been different had BTCC star Tom Ingram not hit mechanical woe in a similar car on his category debut. Ingram led by 5s within a lap before falling fuel pressure slowed then halted his progress. Propshaft failure prevented him taking up pole position on Sunday.

Dan Brown became Mensley’s chief challenger, shadowing him home in Saturday’s curfew-truncated second race before compression strut failure sidelined his RS500 from the Indy contests. Irishmen Paddy Shovlin and Michael Cullen managed three podiums apiece in their matching BMW M3 E30s, while Scott O’Donnell was third Group A car home in the finale having missed Saturday’s action while his ex-Robb Gravett/Gianfranco Brancatelli RS500 was delayed in customs. Ian Bower (twice), Shaun Morris and Will Davison split the concurrent Pre-’93 contests in their larger-engined E36 M3s.

Also sharing Saturday’s grids were Pre-’83 Group 1 machinery, where Charles Rainford bucked the trend of BTCC nearly men. In the familiar Faberge Ford Capri in which he reigned supreme at the event last year, Rainford twice took GP circuit honours after scrapping with Jonathan Corker’s Datsun 510. A mistake at Surtees cost Corker the opener after he’d dived ahead at Druids, but the Datsun scored an Indy circuit double as Rainford’s Capri wilted in Sunday’s heat.

Rainford had some entertaining Group 1 scraps with Corker’s Datsun

Photo by: Gary Hawkins

Most successful of the BTCC luminaries was Sam Tordoff, whose Ford Mustang was untroubled en route to four from four Pre-’66 wins. Jordan Racing Team cars locked out the GP circuit podiums as Shovlin and Victor Cullen – Michael’s son – entertained in their Lotus Cortinas, the youngster’s slightly smoother style twice prevailing. Shovlin was second on the road in bout three but lost out to a track-limits penalty. He was then involved in a nasty multi-car shunt in the finale, which allowed the Mustang of Piers Grange, best of the championship regulars all weekend, onto the podium.

BMW-powered Adrian Bradley took on the Australian V8s in Classic Thunder and twice prevailed. A disrupted qualifying session left a slightly jumbled grid for the opener, but wily three-time champion Andy Robinson capitalised on pole position to lead until late on in his Ford Falcon as Bradley (M3 E46) and Alex Sidwell (Holden Commodore VF) climbed forward. Bradley snatched the lead on the penultimate lap, the V8 Supercars in his mirrors then making contact at Surtees, leaving Robinson in a spin. Sidwell won the rematch after a brush left Bradley touring pit-ward with wheel arch fouling tyre.

Former W Series and GT racer Abbie Eaton starred in the Indy circuit sequels. Pedalling father Paul’s much older self-built Commodore VH, she pressured leader Sidwell throughout. Unable to find an opening in the third contest, she pounced in traffic as the laps wound down in race four. Eaton dived inside at McLaren but the pair made contact and skated into the gravel, Bradley the beneficiary.

In their three-decade British history, Legends Cars had never previously raced on the GP circuit. That anomaly was righted on Saturday when reigning champion Will Gibson charged to his 49th and 50th career wins. Oli Schlup followed each time, the first after clashing with pre-event points leader Tyler Read at Sheene Curve on the final lap. They sandwiched success for new table-topper Connor Mills when Gibson was eliminated early on.

Graham Crowhurst (BMW M3 E46) triumphed in a mini-enduro for the Classic Sports Car Club’s New Millennium and Turbo Tin Tops series, in which Turkington starred in a third different car. The Ulsterman was slashing Crowhurst’s lead by several seconds per lap in the closing stages. Driving the M3 E36 Evo started by owner Mark Smith – the polesitter thankful for a red flag sparing his blushes after spinning – Turkington ultimately fell just short again. His 8s deficit was significantly less than the pair’s 30s pitstop extension as previous winners.

Legends made a first-ever appearance on the Grand Prix circuit, with Mills emerging as new points leader

Photo by: Gary Hawkins