MG’s Sam Tordoff comfortably scored his first-ever win in the British Touring Car Championship in race one at Snetterton to beat team-mate Jason Plato to the win by 2.514 seconds.
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Tordoff led the entire race from pole position and was never really challenged by Plato, allowing the 24-year-old to take his third podium finish of the season and, crucially, his first win in the series.
Honda’s Gordon Shedden finished in third behind Plato, despite pressuring the MG driver throughout the second half of the race. The reigning champion was followed across the finish line by eBay Motors’ Colin Turkington, who scored victory in the Independents category to close the gap to leader Andrew Jordan.
Jordan himself finished in fifth, half a second behind Turkington, unable to really challenge for a pass on the Northern Irishman. The Pirtek Racing driver had lost out to Turkington at the start of the race – the only change of position inside the top six.
Following extensive repairs to his car overnight following his qualifying crash, Árón Smith repaid his team’s efforts to finish in sixth. Adam Morgan had a relatively quiet race in his Ciceley Racing Toyota to take the flag in seventh.
Eighth went to Mat Jackson after the Airwaves Racing driver passed Honda’s Matt Neal on the tenth lap of the race. Both drivers had been making gradual progress into the lower half of the top ten, with Jackson passing Neal along the Bentley straight heading into the Esses for only his seventh top-ten result of the season.
Neal and Rob Collard completed the top ten, with the latter having battled with Jack Goff and Tom Onslow-Cole in the closing stages of the race. Goff and Onslow-Cole finished 11th and 12th after battling with Dave Newsham. Speedworks’ Newsham had been running in 11th until the final lap of the race when the Scot attempted a pass on the duo into the Esses, instead spinning on his own entering the corner and dropping to 18th.
There were also spins for Dan Welch, who finished in 17th after a first lap spin on the exit of Agostini, and Robb Holland, who took the finish in 21st after spinning at the Esses.
On their first outings in their new NGTC cars, Andy Neate finished last in 22nd in his new Chevrolet Cruze, whilst Warren Scott retired on the final lap of the race when his Volkswagen Passat CC caught fire.
Round 17 takes place at 14:35 BST.