Priaulx dedicates win to McRae

World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx moved 12 points clear in the standings and dedicated his victory at Brands Hatch to Colin McRae.

Priaulx followed up his first race seventh with his first touring car win at the Kent circuit and then dedicated his victory to McRae who was killed last weekend when his helicopter crashed near his home in Scotland.

BMW driver Priaulx dedicated the race win to McRae and his family after moving top in the standings with two rounds and four races remaining as he bids to land a third consecutive world title.

Priaulx had gone into the Brands round trailing fellow BMW driver Augusto Farfus by a narrow margin but pulled clear of the Brazilian and German Jorg Muller who dropped to fourth in the standings after a poor weekend.

Priaulx started the second race in third and after the first corner had overtaken fellow BMW driver Felix Porteiro for the lead.

Porteiro crossed the finishing line in second followed by home driver Rob Huff in the Chevrolet Lacetti.

Farfus saw his hopes hit when he collided with Alain Menu and ended the race with his BMW crashing into the pit wall.

After three laps under the safety car Menu was show a black flag for his part in the incident.

Huff fought off the attentions of SEAT’s Jordi Gene, with Colin Turkington also holding off the SEAT of Yvan Muller and Alfa Romeo’s James Thompson.

Turkington took fourth from Gene who also lost out to Yvan Muller whose fifth place moved him to third in the standings ahead of namesake Jorg Muller who passed Thompson on lap 14 and finished seventh to slip to fourth in the points table.

Menu had had a better time of it in race one as he won ahead of Thompson and the BMW of Turkington who overtook Gene on the penultimate lap.

Jorg Muller was involved in an incident with Nicola Larini’s Chevrolet and could only salvage 14th place from the race.

Turkington and Muller both passed Gene on lap 15 to finish third and fourth.

Huff and Priaulx were sixth and seventh after passing Pierre-Yves Corthals’ SEAT Leon.

Priaulx said: “While I am going to do some celebrating, before getting back to serious mental and physical work in preparation for the final two race weekends of the season in Monza and Macau, I am also going to reflect on the sadness behind my dedication of this win to the family of my good mate Colin McRae.”

Priaulx and McRae raced each other during the end-of-season Race of Champions event and were due to meet again in the latest version at Wembley in December.

Priaulx added: “I don’t think any of us have yet come to terms with the death of him and his young son a week ago in a helicopter crash. It shows how fragile life can be.”

Moving 12 points clear in the standings, Priaulx was able to celebrate his first touring car race win at Brands.

“To say the weekend in Brands was special for me is an understatement. There I was surrounded by family, friends and fans, having what I think is the best race win of my life.

“The boys in BMW Team UK gave me the perfect support. It is thanks to their usual hard work and determination that we changed a disappointing 10th on the grid, after the car had been good in both free practice sessions, to a seventh on the road in race one and a win in race two.

“They turned the car round to make it good enough to win and, most importantly, let me take maximum points.”