Colin Turkington eased his way to a fifth win of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship season at Croft, ahead of nearest championship challenger Gordon Shedden and MG’s Jason Plato.
The result means that Turkington now has nine series wins to his name at the Yorkshire circuit, and has won four of the last five races in 2014.
An initial delay on the grid meant that the race distance was shortened by one lap from the scheduled fifteen, after the starting lights were held for too long.
When the race eventually got underway, it was Plato who initially looked to have got the better start, but Turkington powered away in the second phase of the getaway with the former relinquishing his second place grid slot to Honda’s Shedden.
There was plenty of action throughout the order as the cars filed into Clervaux, with two separate incidents between Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan, and Adam Morgan and Rob Austin resulting in three-times champion Neal being tapped sideways, collecting Exocet Racing driver Austin who was turned around.
Jack Goff and Nick Foster also collided slightly further back, with the latter losing his bearings and cutting across the infield, before returning to the pits and retiring with suspected suspension issues.
As the frontrunners settled into a rhythm, it quickly became clear that Plato was struggling for pace, with the leading duo staggered ahead of him and Rob Collard hounding the MG driver for the final podium spot, after a traditionally good getaway.
Morgan had looked set to be the best of the rest amongst six cars but he pulled off on the main straight, as Neal closed back in on Plato, Collard and Jordan after his turn one incident after passing Sam Tordoff in the second MG.
Turkington set a new lap record – a 1:24.815 – early on in the encounter as he began to pull well clear of Shedden, the Northern Irishman extending his lead to a comfortable 7.478s by the end of the race, despite carrying 45 kilograms of ballast.
With the top two positions nailed on, the real battle was for the final podium spot as Plato continued to fend off Collard. The eBay Motors driver was relentless in his application of pressure to the two-time champion, drawing alongside his MG on the main straight and running wide at Tower in a bid to close in, but Plato’s calm driving and Stout defending won him a deserved third place ahead of the frustrated Collard, with Jordan and Neal next up.
Tordoff was in a similar position to his teammate as he was left to defend seventh place, but pressure from Alain Menu eventually told as the Swiss passed him into the Esses on lap ten, with Mat Jackson following the BMR Restart driver through.
Tordoff then retained his ninth place to the flag, but the spate of incidents at the start and sensible driving meant that Hunter Abbott was able to claim his maiden top-ten finish in the series, the AlcoSense driver claiming only his second points finish having elected to run the soft tyre.
Dave Newsham also made good progress to finish in 11th, with Fabrizio Giovanardi in 12th ahead of the recovering Austin. Martin Depper scored his first points of the season as he pipped Tom Ingram to 14th on the line by just 0.041s.
Race two gets underway at 14:39 BST.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 14 | 20:08.824 | 1:24.815 | 1 |
| 2 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 14 | 7.478 | 1:25.058 | 3 |
| 3 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 14 | 13.89 | 1:25.328 | 2 |
| 4 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 14 | 14.153 | 1:25.197 | 6 |
| 5 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 14 | 14.692 | 1:25.404 | 5 |
| 6 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 14 | 15.054 | 1:25.124 | 4 |
| 7 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen Passat CC | 14 | 15.963 | 1:25.586 | 9 |
| 8 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 14 | 19.173 | 1:25.717 | 15 |
| 9 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 14 | 20.905 | 1:25.753 | 7 |
| 10 | 54 | I | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Alcosense Breathalysers Racing | Audi A4 | 14 | 21.361 | 1:25.432 | 17 |