Turkington is TCR UK champion as battle goes down to the wire

James Turkington became the second-ever winner of the TCR UK title when he beat Lewis Kent by just five points following the championship’s final race at Donington Park.
After Qualifying, the gap between Turkington and Kent had shrunk to 16 points, with Kent qualifying third and Turkington sixth. In total, six TCR cars were entered for the event, together with seven Touring Car Trophy cars to form the largest grid of the season.
Race 1 saw TCR pole-sitter Darelle Wilson make a good start and challenge for the lead, while Kent briefly attacked Wilson until he made contact with a TCT car and slid off the track, falling back to lie in last place in TCR. The safety car was deployed, which enabled Kent to dive into the pits to allow his team to clear grass from the car’s radiator.
When racing resumed, Wilson was given a drive-through for a false start, but before serving the penalty, he made contact with race leader Henry Neal’s Honda and the TCT car spun off across the grass. This meant the CUPRA of debutee Adam Morgan moved into the race lead ahead of Alex Morgan’s Renault Mégane RS. Turkington’s CUPRA was then the third-placed TCR car, but the recovering Kent passed him on Lap 11 and the dying moments of the race then saw Wilson just beating Turkington in the sprint to the finish line, so Turkington dropped from fourth to fifth.
At the start of Race 2, with the gap between Turkington and Kent down to eleven points, pole-sitter Adam Morgan was involved in a fight for the lead with Alex Morgan and Kent, who started from P2 and P3 respectively. The positions remained the same, however, with the CUPRA opening up an advantage while Kent’s Hyundai battled with the Renault of Alex Morgan. Wilson, meanwhile, had been given a grid penalty for an incident in the first race, but passed Turkington for fourth place in the TCR class on Lap 5.
On Lap 10, Kent briefly overtook Alex Morgan, but ran wide and Morgan was able to retake the position. Then, on Lap 13, Kent attacked again and this time made the move stick. With Turkington in fifth place in the TCR class, Kent needed to pass Adam Morgan to win the title and duly set off in pursuit of the CUPRA. Despite the gap between the pair coming down to less than a second, the chequered flag brought Kent’s bid for the title to an end, with Adam Morgan taking his second TCR class win of the day. Kent was second and Alex Morgan third, while Wilson finished fourth. Fifth place was enough for Turkington to take the title after a thrilling finale to the season.

Race 1
1. Adam Morgan (Cicely Motorsport, CUPRA), 17 laps
2. Alex Morgan (Wolf-Power Racing, Renault Mégane RS), 1.644
3. Lewis Kent (Essex & Kent Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 11.089

Race 2
1. Adam Morgan (Cicely Motorsport, CUPRA), 21 laps
2. Lewis Kent (Essex & Kent Motorsport, Hyundai i30 N), 0.825
3. Alex Morgan (Wolf-Power Racing, Renault Mégane RS), 5.822

Championship points
1. Turkington 161; 2. Kent 156; 3. Wilson 116