Jake Hill and Colin Turkington would take wins for BMW at Oulton Park, on a day when the title race was shaken up. Here is how the action unfolded across the three races.
Race One
Third place man in the championship, Colin Turkington, would start at the back of the field after the Northern Irishman was disqualified from Qualifying for insufficient fuel samples from his West Surrey Racing BMW.
Ash Sutton would take yet another Pole position for the first race with his dominant Ford Focus ST.
As usual, though, this dominance only came with one lap of Hybrid usage, with Second place man Jake Hill having four laps and Ricky Collard in third having eight.
The only two drivers who would go for the hard tyres would be Aiden Moffat and Jade Edwards, with the rest on Softs.
Jake Hill would get a great start to take the lead by turn one, Sutton would try to regain the lead around the outside of Island Bend, but Hill would fend him off.
Sutton was not letting the Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsports BMW of Hill getaway, with the Napa Racing UK driver trying to send it around the outside at Cascades but Hill was able to push Sutton to the edge of the circuit at the exit of the corner to hold onto the lead on lap two.
The #1 Hyundai of Tom Ingram would move to the inside of Ricky Collard going into Old Hall Corner and would easily make the move to put himself into third position at the start of lap five.
The other West Surrey Racing BMWs of #12 Stephen Jelley and #33 of Adam Morgan were fighting for ninth with Adam Morgan taking the position with a move down the inside at turn one.
Then on Lap 10, all three West Surrey BMWs found themselves together with Taylor- Smith finding himself being caught by the pack of BMWs.
Adam Morgan would be the first to pass the Astra of Aron Taylor-Smith with the BMW pushing the Astra under braking, which ran the Astra wide and allowed the BMW to go through on the inside line at Island Bend.
On Lap 12, Turkington would pass Taylor-Smith for ninth as the #40 Castore Power Maxed Racing Astra outbroke himself and ran wide at Island Bend.
Then on Lap 13 Jelley would be the last West Surrey Racing BMW to pass Taylor Smith, in an identical move to Colin Turkington at Island Bend on Lap 13.
On Lap 15, Dan Rowbottom in the Napa Racing Ford Focus ST would fly up the inside across the curb and into the side of the #40 Castore Power Maxed Racing Astra, at druids, which sent them both off and into the outside tyre wall.
Rowbottom’s move was a result of brake failure as he headed into Druids, which resulted in contact between the two.
Jake Hill would win race one at Oulton Park, with the top two in the championship just behind with Sutton +1.874s behind in second and Ingram +2.563s in third.
Josh Cook would take the independent win as he finished sixth in his #66 One Motorsports Honda Civic Type R.
Race two
The only two drivers that went for the Hard tyres in this race were two of the Napa Racing UK Fords which were Rowbottom and Osborne.
Jake Hill had another great start leading into turn one.
Sutton’s start was slightly weaker which put him under pressure from Ingram’s #1 Hyundai into turn one but he was able to use his track position to outbreak the reigning champ, to hold onto the second position.
At Hislops Jade Edwards would be sent sideways after Will Powell in his One Motorsports Honda Civic Type R taped her left rear while trying to get up the inside, which forced the Team Hard driver to retire later in the lap.
The #19 Cupra of Bobby Thompson retired on lap three with damage to his front right tyre.
On lap four Will Powell was sitting frontwards in the tyre wall at Cascades, which brought out the Safety car.
They went racing again at the end of lap six with Jake Hill excellently timing when to go, which allowed him to create a gap to the behind Sutton and Ingram.
Colin Turkington’s charge from Race One would continue with the West Surrey Racing driver diving up the inside at Old Hall Corner to take fifth from the Napa Racing UK Ford ST of Dan Cammish.
He would then repeat the move moving him on up to fourth as he passed Ricky Collard into turn one.
Ricky Collard’s day would get worse as into turn one Dan Cammish would lunge up the inside of the #37 Toyota Corolla of Collard, which saw the two clatter off one another at the apex of the corner which pushed Collard onto the grass on the exit losing him another two positions on lap thirteen.
On lap 14, Ricky Collard would try to find his way back past Stephen Jelley for Eighth position but would punt the BMWs right rear which sent Jelley into a 360 across the grass at Hislops.
At the end of the second to last lap Colin Turkington in his West Surrey racing BMW was trying to get the switch back on Tom Ingram’s Hyundai, but Ingram would slow the car on the Apex, which resulted in Turkington ramming into the Hyundai’s rear damaging the BMWs bonnet.
Jake Hill would take the win and his first-ever double in the championship with him being +1.773s ahead of Ash Suttons’ Napa Racing UK Ford ST, and then +4.302s from Tom Ingram in his #1 Excelr8 Hyundai i30n.
Josh Cook would take yet another Independent win in the #66 Honda Civic Type R, with Cook finishing fourth overall.
Race Three
Race Three Adam Morgan would inherit the number one starting position for the start with Dan Cammish starting alongside him.
Tyre wise it was a bit of a lottery as Edwards, Moffat, Rowbottom, and Osborne would be the only ones on Softs as everyone else was on Hard tyres, but the rain was on its way.
Just as the formation lap started the first raindrops were just falling, but it was only a sprinkling.
Some drivers did change though with Andrew Watson and Nicolas Hamilton risking it, for a chance to gain positions if the rain got heavier.
Dan Lloyd in the #123 Cupra would come into the pits before the race with engine issues, he would head back out on the Wet tyres.
The start was mundane up front but the real action was behind as Ash Sutton was squeezed into the pit wall by Tom Ingram, which resulted in his front right suspension collapsing, this was the end of the championship leaders’ day.
As a result of Sutton’s car stopping on the circuit, this brought out the safety car at the end of Lap One.
The boards notifying the drivers of this were a bit late though, which meant the drivers were still racing coming onto the pit straight and were a bit bunched up behind the Safety car when they met it.
They would go green again on Lap Five with Adam Morgan getting away well securing his lead into turn one from the cars behind.
On Lap Six, Turkington would stick side by side with Morgan from Lodge Corner to Cascades where he would use the inside line to take the lead.
Adam Morgan would fall further with Jake Hill passing Morgan at Island Bend to move up to the second position.
On Lap 8, Jake Hill would apply some pressure on Colin Turkington as the Laser Tool Racing with MB Motorsports BMW took the fastest lap.
The dark horse for the race win was a fast-moving Aiden Moffat in his #16 One Motorsports Honda Civic Type R who was up to sixth from a 16th place starting position on the soft tyres on Lap 11.
Aron Taylor- Smith would come into the pits and retire his Power Maxed Astra, on a very bad day for the Irish driver.
The retirements would continue as Bobby Thompsons’ rear left suspension would fail as he made a robust move up the inside of Osbornes Ford which saw them make contact.
Race Three ended with a BMW one two three with Colin Turkington winning by +1.762s from Jake Hill and +4.305s from Adam Morgan.
Aiden Moffat would take the Independent win with a sixth-place finish, which was One Motorsport’s third of the day.
Championship wise it has defiantly tightened up with Ash Sutton now only +6 points ahead of Tom Ingram, and +26 ahead of Colin Turkington going into the summer break.