Gordon Shedden converted pole position into a crushing victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Rockingham, leading home Mat Jackson by 2.5 seconds, with Jason Plato close behind in third.
Shedden and Jackson, both on the front row, made equal starts and went into Deene hairpin on the opening lap alongside one another, however the inside line allowed the former to maintain his advantage. From there, Shedden never looked back and gradually extended his lead en route to a third victory of the season.
Jackson spent the majority of the race defending from the Silverline Subaru BMR Racing duo of Plato and two-time champion Colin Turkington. The Levorg GT’s disposed quickly with MG’s Josh Cook at the start and, though a number of lock-ups from Jackson in the closing stages afforded them a chance to close on the Ford Focus ST, Jackson was able to claim the runner-up spot by a margin of half a second.
Championship leader Sam Tordoff put in a strong drive to scythe through the field to 10th despite starting 27th after problems struck the WSR trio of BMW 125i M-Sport machines in qualifying. Similarly his team-mate Rob Collard, long renowned for his overtaking prowess, also improving to 14th. Jack Goff completed the recovery drives for BMW with a surge to 12th.
Tordoff’s closest championship challenger, three-time series winner Matt Neal, managed to hold his 8th to close to within seven points of the 27-year old, despite a race that left the works Civic Type-R resembling a yo-yo, with Adam Morgan, Aiden Moffat, Dave Newsham and Tom Ingram providing the headaches. Neal was briefly relieved of position by Jake Hill, before the latter fell to mechanical gremlins and was forced to take a lengthy pitstop that all but ruined his race.
Martin Depper, Mark Howard and Hunter Abbott were the only three to fail to make the finish, the former stopping in the middle of Brook chicane, seemingly with a mechanical fault. Howard got into strife at Pif Paf in the opening exchanges and never recovered, whilst Abbott span at Deene hairpin amid suspicion of a rear failure on the Chevrolet Cruze as it snapped mid-corner.
Heading into the second race, Shedden will now line up on pole position with a full quota of 75 kilograms of success ballast, with Jackson even heavier alongside. The MG duo of Cook and Sutton pick up ballast for the first time this weekend in fifth and sixth, whilst championship leader Sam Tordoff will lose a considerable amount of weight as he chases a return to the sharp end of the field, as will Collard.
The victory moves Gordon Shedden to within twenty-three points of the title lead, but for now Tordoff remains at the top of the roost. Race two gets underway at 13:52.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN |  |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 26:36.324 | 1:23.375 | 1 |
| 2 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 18 | 2.561 | 1:23.704 | 2 | |
| 3 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 2.869 | 1:23.646 | 4 |
| 4 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 3.165 | 1:23.699 | 5 |
| 5 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 18 | 8.741 | 1:23.939 | 3 |
| 6 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 18 | 12.144 | 1:24.184 | 6 |
| 7 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 18 | 14.072 | 1:24.291 | 14 | |
| 8 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 18.244 | 1:24.534 | 8 |
| 9 | 71 | David NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 18 | 23.899 | 1:24.253 | 13 | |
| 10 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 24.168 | 1:23.849 | 27 |
| 11 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 25.086 | 1:24.892 | 12 | |
| 12 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 26.423 | 1:23.837 | 25 |
| 13 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 28.526 | 1:24.550 | 9 | |
| 14 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 28.994 | 1:24.511 | 26 |
| 15 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 29.625 | 1:24.314 | 21 | |
| 16 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 31.391 | 1:24.641 | 7 | |
| 17 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 18 | 33.533 | 1:25.059 | 20 | |
| 18 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 39.864 | 1:24.863 | 30 | |
| 19 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 40.123 | 1:24.533 | 18 |
| 20 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 42.436 | 1:25.290 | 31 | |
| 21 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 18 | 43.295 | 1:25.290 | 24 | |
| 22 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 43.626 | 1:25.638 | 17 |
| 23 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 18 | 46.925 | 1:25.213 | 22 | |
| 24 | 34 | Tony GILHAM | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 50.092 | 1:25.550 | 28 | |
| R | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 16 | 2 Laps | 1:24.898 | 23 | |
| R | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 2 Laps | 1:23.760 | 16 | |
| 25 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 2 Laps | 1:24.464 | 15 | |
| 26 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 16 | 2 Laps | 1:24.632 | 10 | |
| R | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 11 | 7 Laps | 1:24.413 | 19 | |
| R | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 11 | |
| R | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 0 | DNF | N/A | 29 |