COLIN Turkington was the big winner from an action-packed weekend at Croft in the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The Irishman grabbed the lead in the race for the title after sealing two victories and a sixth-place finish.

With Matt Neal, who had headed the table prior to the meeting in the North-East, unable to get near the podium, Turkington, in the Team RAC BMW, took full advantage.

He now has 149 points ahead of the six-week break, with Neal second on 124. Reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi (VX Racing) is third, thanks in part to a win in a rain-affected third race, and North-East raised Jason Plato (Racing Silverline) in fourth on 113.

Newcastle's Harry Vaulkard, who crashed out in race one on Sunday is 12th on 18 points.

"What a fantastic day," said Turkington afterwards. "I am delighted to be leading the Championship. The success is down to a real team effort. WSR have given (team-mate) Stephen (Jelley) and I great cars, and we are performing at our best and taking full advantage of the good conditions. "I will go in to the mid-season break full of confidence and I'm already eager to get back behind the wheel at Snetterton."

Turkington led from pole position in race one for his fourth win of the season and also set the race's fastest lap.

Jelley was second - his first podium finish in the BTCC - followed by Plato, third in his Chevrolet Lacetti. Yorks James Thompson came in 11th in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic.

The race was stopped two laps early following Vaulkhard's collision with Tom Chilton (Team Aon).

The second race saw a depleted field following the openers comings together, but as then it was Turkington who led from start to finish and set the race's fastest lap for an extra bonus point.

Once again he was followed home by Jelley and Plato.

The top six was exactly as it finished before, with Airwaves BMW's Rob Collard holding on to fourth position ahead of Vauxhall pair Giovanardi and Neal.

Plato provided the drama this time, pulling off a gutsy move on Collard after the latter had overtaken him early on.

It brought cheers from the crowd and that appeared to give him the impetus to push on further.

He opened a gap on those following him, but could do little to rein in the two BMWs.

While the opening two battles had been joined in the sun, the grid for race three formed in a downpour.

With the top ten reversed, Turkington had his work cut out and such was the storm that much of the race was run behind the safety car.

Giovanardi emerged victorious after overtaking Thompson's Civic between the Sunny In and Out corners.

Thompson came second with Jelley, celebrating three podiums in one day, third.

Paul O'Neill (Sunshine.co.uk) had led from pole position until a faulty alternator on his Honda Integra caused him to retire.

Plato, no stranger to controversy, was in the thick of it again as the rain came down when contact sent Neal spinning. Neal could only finish eighth, a further boost to Turkington's title bid, while Plato sealed fifth behind VX Racing's Andrew Jordan.

Reflecting on relinquishing his lead, Neal said: "I guess you have to have bad ones to appreciate the good ones. My car felt better and better as the weekend went on, but it wasn't the track for us.

I don't think losing the championship lead is a concern as we still have plenty of races to come and circuits which are more suited to our car.

"I wasn't happy to be punted off by Jason (Plato) and it's not the first time, as it happened at Donington, it's just disappointing for the boys who work so hard when we don't get the results we deserve."