Jamie Tonks took no prisoners as he fought his way forward to claim his maiden TCR UK win in his Area Motorsport by FastR CUPRA TCR, in the final thrilling race of the day at Oulton Park.
Matthew Wilson was promoted to the reverse grid race pole position after several post race one penalties applied, however, the JWB Motorsport CUPRA made a slow getaway and was unable to stop Lewis Kent taking the lead in his Essex and Kent Motorsport Hyundai Veloster N TCR. Behind, Bruce Winfield made a great start, making up several places to take second place and chase down Kent.
Lewis Kent was soon holding off the faster Winfield in the early laps, Tonks was holding off the very fast Andy Wilmot in his JamSport Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR in fourth place ahead of Wilson, who was losing places slowly, Chris Smiley, Isaac Smith, Bradley Hutchison, Ant Whorton-Eales and Adam Shepherd.
As the top ten stayed in close contact with each other, it took until lap eleven for Winfield to gather his challenge and pass Lewis Kent on the star/finish straight to take the lead. Kent fought back on the run to Knickerbrook after the Island hairpin and as the two battled, this allowed Tonks into a lead he wouldn’t lose.
As Tonks escaped, chaos ensued as the Hyundai Veloster driver tried to hold off the charging Smiley, who got past Wilmot for fourth place, but was unable to mount a challenge for fourth.
Isaac Smith provided the highlights in the closing stages, first getting past title rival Smiley at the Island hairpin and then pulling off the same move on Lewis Kent to take third place as up ahead, Tonks secured the victory with Winfield giving Area Motorsport a 1-2 finish.
Whilst Smiley took fourth place ahead of Adam Shepherd, Andy Wilmot took sixth place and his second straight Goodyear Diamond Trophy win despite fighting for a podium position early on. Matthew Wilson, race one winner Alex Ley, Jac Constable and Darelle Wilson in the DW Racing Vauxhall Astra TCR completed the top ten.
After being awarded ten second penalty, Lewis Kent fell from fifth to be classified in eleventh place ahead of Callum Newsham who also received a track limits penalty with Neil Trotter being the last classified finisher in his Chameleon Motorsport CUPRA TCR.
Bradley Hutchison (Audi), Max Hart (Hyundai), Ant Whorton-Eales (Subaru), Jessica Hawkins (CUPRA), Scot Sumpton (Hyundai) and Bradley Kent (Hyundai) failed to finish.
