Colin Turkington romped to victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Rockingham, beating poleman Sam Tordoff away from the line at the start and pulling clear thereafter.
Turkington was unchallenged in the race to take his seventh victory of the season and further extend his championship lead. Tordoff was forced to settle for second, unable to challenge Turkington once the BMW driver’s tyres were up to temperature.
Jason Plato finished the race in third, scoring his tenth podium of the season, having not been close enough to challenge his team-mate in front.
Finishing in a season-best fourth was Team BMR’s Alain Menu, who continued to make progress in the race despite running on the softer option tyres. Menu pulled off convincing passes on several drivers at the Tarzan hairpin including a double-pass on Airwaves Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi and Mat Jackson on lap eight. He then set about and caught Andrew Jordan, and closed a near two second gap to Adam Morgan in the closing laps of the race.
Morgan himself was forced to settle for fifth after Menu caught and passed him on the penultimate lap, extending his run of top tens to eight in a row.
Reigning champion Jordan finished the race in sixth, ahead of Italian Giovanardi in seventh, who got past his team-mate on lap ten.
Eighth was Honda’s Gordon Shedden, with the Scot losing ground on lap four when trying to pass Plato for a podium position. The Scot had a look at the MG driver into Gracelands but made contact, pitching him into a slide which lost him a handful of positions.
Completing the top ten were Airwaves Racing’s Jackson and Team BMR’s Jack Goff, who was forced to defend heavily on the final lap as eBay Motors’ Rob Collard and Exocet Racing’s Rob Austin looked to gain positions.
There was one safety car intervention for two laps during the race, which came about as a result of a big accident between Houseman Racing’s Lea Wood and Team BMR’s Warren Scott on lap five. Wood entered the turn two hairpin backwards, possibly as a result of contact, and hit the front-left of Scott’s car, causing significant damage to both cars.
United Autosport’s James Cole also failed to finish the race, having earlier been collected by BTC Racing’s Chris Stockton.
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 | 18 | 27:07.926 | 1:23.508 | 2 |
| 2 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 18 | 3.334 | 1:23.951 | 1 |
| 3 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 18 | 6.832 | 1:24.223 | 3 |
| 4 | 9 | I | Alain MENU |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 9.390 | 1:24.253 | 8 |
| 5 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 11.481 | 1:23.924 | 6 |
| 6 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 18 | 13.724 | 1:23.949 | 5 |
| 7 | 7 | I | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI |  |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 13.925 | 1:23.776 | 11 |
| 8 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 18 | 18.916 | 1:23.911 | 4 |
| 9 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 19.011 | 1:24.010 | 10 |
| 10 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 23.100 | 1:23.683 | 17 |