Andover Advertiser motorsports correspondents Tim Crisp and Taco Jonkman give their account of the recent British Touring Car Championships at Thruxton.

A RECORD crowd flocked to Thruxton earlier this month to watch a thrilling third round of the British Touring Car Championships.

Over 33,000 motor enthusiasts from across the country descend on the Test Valley-based track for the third meeting of the 2016 BTCC season.

As usual there was wheel-towheel racing from all classes that took to the 2.356-mile circuit, the fastest track that the BTCC visit each year.

Weather played a key role over the weekend, with the hot sunny conditions making the alreadyfamous abrasive track even harder on the bespoke hard compound tyres.

Before the racing had even started there was disappointing news, the Silverline Subaru BMR Team had withdrawn their four cars from the event due to a safety issue with the Subaru Levorg GT’s fuel line.

Their driver line-up included two former champions Colin Turkington and Jason Plato.

However, there was plenty of attention on actor Kelvin Fletcher of Emmerdale fame in his Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet Cruze.

Race one was won by Adam Morgan in his Mercedes Benz A-Class.

However, the race was stopped on lap 11 after Matt Neal and Josh Cook had a coming together as they exited the chicane.

Motorbase Performance Ford Focus scored their first of two wins in race two, with Andrew Jordan finishing on top spot.

The 16-lap race was shorten to 12 laps as a result of track temperature raising to over 30C which was seen as the cut-off point for the hard Dunlop tyres.

Hampshire driver Rob Collard in his BMW 125i M Sport finished second in the race.

The JCT600 with GARDX driver made a flying start, pulling up to third by lap five.

He had to fight off fellow team mate Jack Goff over the following laps.

Collard managed an overtake on lap 10 and beat race one winner Morgan into second.

The reverse grid for race three put Collard in eighth and again he produced a brilliant performance by finishing in sixth.

Mat Jackson in his Ford Focus led the race from the start to land the last win of the day.

Meanwhile Collard’s son, Jordan, in his rookie year with the Ginetta Junior Championship, qualified 15th on the grid making him the sixth fastest rookie with a finish of 16th in race one.

Young Collard pushed up to fifth in race two.

As well as the BTCC, Thruxton hosted rounds of the F4 British Championship and The Renualt UK Clio Cup over the weekend.