“You Beauty! Fantastic Win for MG"

13 July 2003

Following their tantalizingly close second place at Rockingham, MG arrived at Croft Circuit nr Darlington determined to go one better.

Because of the 52kg of success ballast following his second place at Rockingham, Anthony Reid was relatively pleased to be fourth on the grid for race one.

Anthony Reid said: “ None of the three cars in front of us has any success ballast so we are pretty much where we hoped to be”. Warren Hughes started in eighth and Colin Turkington tenth place.

In the race Muller and Collard had a coming together on the first lap, Muller was out on the spot and the Safety car was deployed for two laps.

Lap eight O’Neil ran into the back of Anthony Reid’s car at Tower corner , but Reid held a gigantic slide and resumed in fourth place.

Anthony Reid said: “he locked up from way back and very nearly ended my race there and then”.

Warren Hughes had a bad day at the office. Lap fourteen he came up behind Dan Eaves and had to swerve to avoid him, ending up in the cornfield.

Warren Hughes said: “We did a lot of damage to the car, but the corn certainly slowed us down very quickly. Perhaps F1 should adopt it as a safety measure”

Colin Turkington made steady progress through the field and on lap 23 passed Reid into fourth; a welcome result for him after a disappointing weekend at Rockingham.

In race two, Anthony Reid made good progress from the start and was third at the end of lap one. The start of lap five Reid took second place from O’Neil and charged past Thompson into the lead at Tower corner; a lead he held to the end.

As Anthony crossed the line Team Principal Dick Bennetts said: “ You Beauty. It’s a fantastic win for MG. Well Done to Anthony and the team at WSR”.

Anthony Reid said: “I can’t tell you how hard everyone at MG has worked for this win. I’m delighted for MG they really deserve it. I knew the 5th place result from the first race was a great platform for the second race. We are now right up there with the others on performance. The MG is a great handling chassis especially in the opening laps, so I took the fight to the others and really blitzed them. The pit stop by the WSR crew was absolutely fantastic. Four seconds. It took my breath away”.

At the chicane on the first lap there were bits flying everywhere, As the dust cleared Warren Hughes was in 13th and Colin Turkington was in 17th position.

Warren and Colin spent the whole of the race in gritty drives up to an eventual 7th place for Colin and 10th for Warren.

Colin Turkington said “ It was nice to have finished 2 races this weekend. A 4th and a 7th give me some valuable points in the championship.

Unfortunately for Hughes the rear suspension of his car took a real bang and he almost parked it up.

Warren Hughes said: “ I almost stopped as the car seemed dangerous, but I took it easy for a while and it didn’t get any worse so I carried on. Sheer perseverance got us a point today”.

Next round of BTCC is Snetterton , Norfolk on Sat 9th August

See series calendar for British Touring Car Championship

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