Gordon Shedden has won the first BTCC race of the day in an almost lights to flag victory. After passing pole sitter Aron Smith off the line, he pulled out a big lead and had an easy drive to win.
Behind, his Honda team mate Matt Neal also overhauled Smith early on to make it a Honda 1-2.
Aron Smith looked like he may hang on to third until a puncture caused him to spin and forced a pit visit which dropped him out of contention. This promoted Adam Morgan to third and the independent win in his Wix Racing Mercedes.
Jason Plato was fourth after fighting his way through from sixth although he gained one place from the demise of his team mate. Andy Priaulx was fifth although he had an eventful race. A good start saw him fighting for third until a huge lock up wrecked his tyres. This dropped him down the order to seventh but an incident between Goff and Turkington saw him jump ahead of them across the line. Goff’s MG and Turkington’s VW had been battling for fifth with Priaulx just behind when the Goff faltered on the final lap allowing both Turkington and Priaulx to draw alongside. They ran three abreast when Turkington and Goff touched and Priaulx could then nip through to take his fifth place.
Andrew Jordan also made his way past the pair to take sixth leaving seventh to Turkington and eighth to Goff. Goff also lost his fastest lap time for track limit infringements dropping him down the grid for race two which is decided on fastest lap times.
Ninth was Josh Cook’s Power Maxed Chevrolet ahead of Speedworks Tom Ingram. Cooks team mate Newsham was an early retirement on lap 1.
Tordoff, Depper and Collard were eleventh to thirteenth respectively. Collard had run higher early on but dropped down the order as the race went one. Fourteenth was Rob Austin. His team mate Hunter Abbott had a great race long battle with Aiden Moffat for the final point. The Scottish driver in his Mercedes eventually came out on top of Abbot’s Audi. Abbot’s Audi had been fixed from his shunt in qualifying after his team worked late into the night.
The race saw Simon Belcher and Dan Welch not taking part as their cars were too damaged from yesterday’s incidents. Mike Bushell is at the circuit today on crutches with his injuries thankfully not as severe as first thought. He has major ligament damage around his leg and hip but no broken bones. He will probably miss at least Oulton Park and maybe further rounds. His car is also heavily damaged and will need a lot of work to get it back to racing condition.
Full results of race one are on TSL timing.
Jason Plato will start on pole for race two after setting the fastest lap. He has Rob Collard alongside him on the front row. Morgan and Shedden make up row two with Priaulx and Smith on row three.
Head to TSL timing for the full grid. By Marc Waller
