Toyota Corolla driver Tom Ingram took a pair of Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship victories in the penultimate race weekend at Silverstone, while BMW ace Colin Turkington’s charge through the field to second place in race two helped him extend his points lead. Jack Goff also left the Northamptonshire circuit a winner, securing Team Hard’s first BTCC victory in the reverse grid final race in his Volkswagen CC. Double BTCC champion Jason Plato had claimed pole position in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, and led the first race early on in difficult conditions. But Team Toyota GB driver Ingram soon closed in, and claimed the lead at Luffield with a paint-trading move on lap four He pulled away to take a clear win from Plato and BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R pair Chris Smiley and Josh Cook. Andrew Jordan finished tenth in his WSR-run BMW 3 Series, while his team-mare and title rival Turkington could only manage 14th. Works Civic Type-R driver Dan Cammish, also in with a shot at the title, was 11th. Ingram won again in race two, despite dropping back to second behind Tom Oliphant (BMW 330i M Sport) after further contact with Plato at the start. A safety car bunched the field, and it began to rain shortly before racing resumed. Oliphant was the first man to reach the wet track at Copse on the restart, sliding wide and falling down the order, and gifting Ingram a lead he held until the race was stopped early as the rain worsened. Turkingon thrived in the rain, charging from 14th on the grid to second to build his points lead. Cammish was third ahead of Plato and Cook. The final race was also affected by the rain, with the field starting on dry Dunlop tyres only to find conditions worsening. Cook and Cammish led the way early on, but a mid-race safety car provided a golden opportunity for some runners to gamble on wet tyres. Goff and Aiden Moffatt (Infiniti Q50) both gambled early, and stormed through the pack. Their battle for victory was decided when Moffatt spun, although he still finished second. Matt Neal (Civic Type R) took third, ahead of Oliphant. Turkington was seventh, while Cammish could only muster 12th. That means Turkington leads Cammish by 16 points heading to the Brands Hatch season finale on 13 October, with Jordan a further point
Origin: BTCC 2019: Silverstone double for Toyota star Ingram
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Audi Sport aims to double sales by 2023
Audi Sport plans to double its sales by 2023 as part of a huge expansion of the Audi’s performance arm. Audi Sport, now under an entirely new management team led by joint managing directors Oliver Hoffmann and Julius Seebach, also plans to bring the high performance RS models to market much quicker than the standard Audis on which they are based, down from 18 months after the launch of a standard car to around six. Sales of Audi Sport models were around 30,000 units globally in 2018 and the plan is to take that to 60,000 by 2023. A big model expansion is already underway in 2019, with new RS4, RS6, RS7 and RSQ3 models joining the TTRS, RS3 and RS5 models already on sale, and RSQ3 Sportback and RSQ8 models confirmed as entirely new additions to the line-up. The RS6 brings 48V mild hybrid technology that sees Audi Sport models electrified for the first time, and the company has confirmed that electrification will be a feature of all of its models in the future. Hoffman confirmed to Autocar that the next-generation RS4 would switch to a plug-in hybrid drivetrain when it launches early in the next decade. The facelift current generation car due at the turn of the year would maintain a twin-turbo V6 powertrain. Hoffmann also confirmed there would be a next-generation R8 and it would be electrified but a decision has yet to be taken on whether it will be a hybrid of a full electric car. Autocar understands Audi is leaning towards the latter option, with the R8 becoming the second fully electric Audi Sport model after the E-Tron GT in 2020. An RS1 was also not ruled out by Hoffmann as part of the expansion plans. “All models are under consideration to reach our sales targets,” he
Origin: Audi Sport aims to double sales by 2023
Jordan takes another BTCC double at Croft
Andrew Jordan claimed his fourth and fifth race wins of 2019 in the latest MSA British Touring Car Championship round at Croft, as the new BMW 3 Series continued its stunning start to the season. Tom Chilton took the honours in the final race of the day in his Motorbase-run Ford Focus RS for his first win of the season. Team BMW driver Colin Turkington took three solid finishes at the Yorkshire circuit, including a second place in the second race, to strengthen his championship lead. BMW Pirtek Racing driver Jordan claimed his first pole position since 2014 in a qualifying session hit by five red flags, and delivered a faultless performance to dominate the opening race. Honda Civic Type R racer Chris Smiley kept the pressure on throughout. Chilton ran third, spending the final stages of the race holding off the BMWs of Turkington and Tom Oliphant. BTCC EXCLUSIVE | VIDEO: Round 10 in 120 seconds #BTCC Watch Live now on ITV4 pic.twitter.com/iNKKxmYZQT — BTCC (@BTCC) June 16, 2019 Jordan continued his hot streak in the second race of the day, once again leading from start to finish. Things didn’t go quite so smoothly for Smiley: struggling with success ballast he was eventually overhauled by Turkington for second, and was then passed by the works Civic Type Rs of Dan Cammish and Matt Neal. On the final lap, Smiley was attempting to defend his place from Ash Sutton (Subaru Levorg) when the two made contact, putting Smiley out of the race – and earning Sutton a grid penalty for the day’s final race. BTCC EXCLUSIVE | VIDEO: Round 11 in 90 secs #BTCC Watch Live now ITV4 pic.twitter.com/DMbuUBffD9 — BTCC (@BTCC) June 16, 2019 Chilton slipped back to ninth in the second race, but was then drawn on the pole for the day’s final event. With rain at Croft easing just before the start, the drivers faced a dilemma over tyre choice. Wets proved the right choice, and Chilton led all the way to take the win. But he didn’t have it easy, with Josh Cook (Civic Type R) and Jason Plato (Vauxhall Astra) pushing him throughout. BTCC EXCLUSIVE | VIDEO: Round 12 in 90 seconds #BTCC pic.twitter.com/lVAlPfdjcr — BTCC (@BTCC) June 16, 2019 Jordan claimed a solid eighth finish to build on his strong form in the first two races. While Jordan now has three more wins than any other driver, a heavy crash that prevented him from scoring in any of the races at Donington Park means he is fourth in the points, 26 behind Turkington, who leads the way with 143. Cook is second in the standings, 11 points off the lead, with Sutton third. The next round is at Oulton Park in Cheshire on June
Origin: Jordan takes another BTCC double at Croft
News Roundup: Double dose of FCA controversy, banged up Bugatti, and Teslas fires that just won’t go out
Flags are lowered at half staff at the FCA headquarters in Turin, Italy, Wednesday, July, 25, 2018. Sergio Marchionne, a charismatic and demanding CEO who engineered two long-shot corporate turnarounds to save both Fiat and Chrysler from near-certain failure, died Wednesday. He was 66. The holding company of Italian automaker Fiats founders, the Agnelli family, announced Marchionne had died after complications from surgery in Zurich. At Fiat Chrysler Automobiles headquarters in the Italian town of Turin, flags flew at half-mast, while in Rome the parliamentary committee for labor and finance observed a minute of silence.Alessandro Di Marco / The Associated press Welcome to our weekly round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam. Here’s what you missed while you were away. Fiat Chrysler pulls out of merger proposal with Renault After being unable to agree on terms of the deal, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has withdrawn its proposal for a 50/50 merger with Renault. The agreement could have formed the world’s third-largest automaker after VW and Toyota, but according to FCA, the French State, which owns 15 per cent of Renault, was showing signs of hesitation (likely stemming from Nissan’s hesitation), prompting FCA to release a statement saying, “It has become clear that the political conditions in France do not currently exist for such a combination to proceed successfully.” Honda CR-V damages Tracy Morgan’s $2-million Bugatti minutes after it’s delivered Tracy Morgan’s Bugatti Veyron in a fender-bender with a Honda CR-V Twitter @J_MOSK Talk about comedic timing. Mere moments after comedian and former SNL cast member Tracy Morgan got behind the wheel of his new (though technically used) Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport convertible, the $2-million vehicle was struck and scraped at an intersection by a Honda CR-V. The driver of the CR-V was allegedly on her phone while trying to make a right turn from the left lane. Nobody was hurt, so feel free to laugh or cry. FCA North American exec files “whistleblower” suit over SEC probe Reid Bigland (Dario Ayala/THE GAZETTE) In other scandalous automotive news, Reid Bigland, FCA’s head of U.S. sales and top boss in Canada, is filing a “whistleblower” lawsuit against the automaker for allegedly cutting his pay by 90 per cent after he gave testimony in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into FCA sales reporting practices. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages, claiming the company unjustly cost Bigland over US$1.8 million in bonus and stock payout. The drastic measures firefighters take to put out and keep out a Tesla fire Sure, we all love a good electric car fire — it’s the new best thing to watch on the Internet (sorry goats in pajamas). But what about for the firefighters who have to extinguish them after the content gold has been captured? Less entertaining, especially considering the cars have been known to reignite up to six days later—a stunt traditional gas-powered cars can’t pull—often requiring fire squadrons to submerge the heavy vehicles in tanks of water for days at a time. BMW demands full payment after Youtuber modifies his financed M4 BMW fan and Youtuber Rickardo “Ricky” Senior, who had a hybrid turbo, upgraded exhaust and methanol injection added to his recently financed BMW M4, bumping up the horsepower figure to over 700, recently learned the hard way why making changes to a product you don’t fully own can be unwise. Because while he views the mods as “upgrades,” BMW sees them as just the opposite, claiming he’s breached the terms of his Personal Contract Purchase and demanding he pay up in full, and soon. “If I don’t make the payment for this car by next week, they’re threatening to recover the vehicle and probably auction the car off and bill me for the remainder of what’s left of the debt,” he told his Youtube, LivingLifeFast. Let’s all learn from Ricky’s ordeal. Europe to ban Camaro SS and Chevy Corvette sales Europe has spoken. The hearty American 6.2-litre LT1 V8 engine found in the C7 Corvette and sixth-generation Camaro SS simply will not do! To satisfy new emissions goals, both the European Union and the U.K. will instate a ban on sales of any Chevy with the V8 as of August 31, 2019. Sales of the used cars will still be permitted. European availability for the upcoming C8 remains up in the air. Quebec has been going HAM with the vanity plates. These are our faves so far This Porsche makes us wonder what is DADTOY1 Montreal Vanity Plate Spotting / Facebook It’s been just nine months since the province of Quebec changed the rules to allow for the use of vanity plates, and since then over 26,000 of the $250 pieces of rectangular metal have been sold by the SAAQ. It seems Quebec drivers have a lot to say in 7 characters or less. Some of our
Origin: News Roundup: Double dose of FCA controversy, banged up Bugatti, and Teslas fires that just won’t go out
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