West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard took victory in the opening race of the 2015 British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch, heading home the Team BMR duo of Árón Smith and Jason Plato.
A monster start from Collard left him in the prime position when teammate Andy Priaulx – who had started from pole – started to lose pace on the soft tyre. From there, Collard managed the gap back to Smith to calmly claim a ninth victory in the championship.
Off the line, Priaulx and Smith both got fair starts, but it was Collard from fifth who managed to squeeze between the pair as the field headed through Paddock Hill bend for the first time in 2015. Alex Martin appeared to stall on grid in his Dextra Racing Ford Focus, while Sam Tordoff in the third WSR car also dropped back off the line.
With Smith and Plato dropping to third and fourth respectively, they nevertheless stayed within striking distance of the fast-starting BMWs, while Jack Goff – who had jumped ahead of Colin Turkington – did his best to stay with the leaders in his MG.
Priaulx looked comfortable at the front for the first ten laps of the race, but Collard started to close in at the end of lap 12, and pounced at the start of lap 14 as he slithered past his teammate at Paddock Hill, with Smith and Plato following through on the run down to Druids.
The three-time World Touring Car champion dropped further back a lap later as Goff, Turkington and the Honda of Gordon Shedden all went through, with Priaulx also losing out to Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal before the end of the race.
Collard maintained a gap of half a second back to his rivals until the end of the race, with Smith in turn holding off Plato for second – although with the fastest lap, the latter will start the second race of the day from pole position.
Goff dropped away from podium contention in the latter stages of the race, but did a fine job of managing the soft tyres to stay ahead of reigning champion Turkington and Shedden, while Jordan and Neal each had quiet runs to seventh and eighth respectively.
Behind Priaulx, Tom Ingram completed the top ten in his Speedworks Toyota, having had a slight coming together with Adam Morgan in the middle of the race. Josh Cook was the highest placing rookie in 13th, with a couple of impressive overtakes moving him ahead of both Rob Austin and Tordoff towards the end of the 24-lap encounter.
Derek Palmer, in his Support Our Paras Racing Infiniti Q50, was the only retirement from the race after 14 laps, while Andy Wilmot did not take the start in his Welch Motorsport Proton.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 6 | C | Rob COLLARD |  |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 24 | 19:52.332 | 48.860 | 5 |
| 2 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 24 | 0.411 | 48.885 | 2 | |
| 3 | 99 | Jason PLATO | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 24 | 0.884 | 48.756 | 3 | |
| 4 | 31 | M | Jack GOFF | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 24 | 5.464 | 48.892 | 6 |
| 5 | 1 | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMR | Volkswagen CC | 24 | 5.726 | 48.876 | 4 | |
| 6 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 24 | 5.819 | 48.826 | 7 |
| 7 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
MG 888 Racing | MG 6GT | 24 | 7.127 | 48.983 | 10 |
| 8 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 24 | 8.668 | 48.904 | 11 |
| 9 | 111 | C | Andy PRIAULX | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 24 | 9.974 | 48.789 | 1 |
| 10 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 24 | 11.26 | 49.085 | 9 |