Darren Turner scored his first Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship victory at Croft today by leading home team-mate Jason Plato in a fantastic one-two finish in SEAT Sport UK’s 101st BTCC race. The achievement is all the more remarkable as it was Darren’s first appearance at the North Yorkshire circuit since 1998.

The result was the highlight of an exciting race day, in which both SEAT Leon drivers scored points in all three races to maintain the team’s impressive record at Croft. It enabled SEAT to out-score Vauxhall and close the gap in the BTCC Manufacturers’ standings, while SEAT Sport UK is now just three points behind VX Racing in the Teams’ Championship.

A gritty performance by Jason saw him finish 7th, 2nd and 8th in the three races to maintain his lead in the BTCC Drivers’ standings.

ROUND 10

In the team’s 100th BTCC race, Darren overcame understeer and oversteer problems to finish 4th, driving brilliantly to keep Mike Jordan (Honda Integra) behind him at the end of the 15 lap encounter around the 2.12 mile track.

After an exciting opening few laps, the race settled down with no changes to the leading positions for much of the race. With 45kgs of success ballast, even Jason wasn’t in much of a position to liven things up. Having started from 8th, he finished 7th; his one place improvement courtesy of Tom Onslow-Cole’s (BMW 320si) retirement following a collision with Matt Neal (Honda Civic).

ROUND 11

Darren scored his first BTCC victory of his career by leading home Jason in a fantastic one-two finish for SEAT Sport UK. Darren made “a peach of a start, the best one ever in the Leon” and capitalised on an incident between Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra), Colin Turkington (BMW 320si) and Jason at the final Hairpin on lap six which saw Darren move up to 2nd place.

Leader Gordon Shedden (Honda Civic) developed steering problems, allowing Darren to overtake him for the lead on lap seven, followed later in the same lap by Jason who moved up to 2nd. The Safety Car then came out for three laps to recover debris, and at the re-start the two Leons immediately opened up a gap as a slowed Shedden (in 3rd) held up the cars behind. The SEAT drivers quickly took advantage of this unexpected cushion, as Jason overtook Darren to score an extra point for leading the race, before the drivers restored the running order.

Victory was just reward for Darren, who also set the fastest lap of the race (1:27.482 / 87.45mph).

ROUND 12

With the top nine drivers starting in reverse order, Jason lined up 8th on the grid, while Darren was 9th. In an exciting race filled with overtaking, Darren overtook Jason at Sunny In on lap seven and, carrying the maximum of 45kgs of success ballast for the first time this season, raced on to finish 5th, keeping Neal behind him in the closing stages.

Jason had a frustrating period stuck behind Jason Hughes (MG ZS), which put him under pressure from behind and vulnerable to numerous overtaking moves down the inside. When Darren overtook, Jason was edged off line and onto the dirty part of the track, and this gave Shedden the opportunity to come through as well. On lap 11, Neal came down the inside of Jason the final Hairpin, and having lost track position and momentum, Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra) overtook on the run down the following start/finish straight. In what could have been a 4th place finish, Jason eventually finished 8th.

DRIVER QUOTES

Jason Plato (7th/2nd/8th): “It’s been a tough weekend. In the first race we did the best we could do with the success ballast we had. Race two was very good and to get a one-two finish for SEAT is fantastic. We had a bit of a coming together at the final Hairpin with Colin Turkington, but the data shows that I braked earlier and lighter than I had done for that corner before, yet I still locked up. Both Colin and I had had a moment earlier in the lap at Tower Bend, and somebody was dropping oil around the circuit. It was a racing incident. As for taking the lead and giving it back, it’s in the regulations that you gain an extra point for leading a race and it made sense for Darren and I to swap and I needed to repay the favour at the end of the race; it was only right that I did that. I’m not really happy about the way my team-mate overtook me in race three, because it ruined my race and I lost places and six Championship points because of it.”

Darren Turner (4th/1st/5th): “I need to be collecting points at the moment because I’m still a long way down in the Championship, so with that in mind I’m quite pleased about the weekend. I had a reasonable start in the first race and kept out of trouble and then that rolled on to me having a great second race. My car was quick and for a change other people had problems which I could benefit from. It was great to get a win and with Jason coming second it was a brilliant result for the team. I started from ninth on the grid in the third and final race and carrying maximum success ballast I just picked up places where I could. Jason ran wide at Sunny and I nipped through on the inside and then I had to defend my place with Matt Neal behind me towards the end. I was quite exhausted after the race because there is no ventilation in the Leon and it was pretty hot in there. All in all, I’m happy to have scored so many points this weekend.”