Jack Goff resisted race-long pressure from double champion Colin Turkington to win the British Touring Car Championship season opener at Brands Hatch.
The pole-sitter made a perfect start in the Honda Civic Type R, fending off the WSR duo of Turkington and Andrew Jordan into Paddock Hill Bend, from where he was never headed at the front of the field.
Their challenge was made possible by wheel-spin on the Ford Focus RS of Sam Tordoff off the line, who would later be forced to pit following contact and a spin onto the grass with Matt Simpson at Surtees, putting him two laps down.
The same incident would force Matt Neal to park his Honda Civic Type R FK7 in the gravel at Clearways.
Turkington looked the stronger of the BMW pairing in the middle of the contest as the BMW 1-series brought its tyres up to temperature, but ultimately failed to find a way past Goff.
Team-mate Jordan rounded out the podium in third and will celebrate his 300th start in the series in the middle race this afternoon.
The double podium for BMW marks their 100th in the championship with the NGTC 1-series.
Tom Ingram underlined the pace of the Toyota Avensis on base weight after cutting through from the fifth row to take fourth, his move to the outside of series rookie Dan Cammish at Druids at two-thirds distance one in a number of superb passing moves.
Tom Chilton led Motorbase Performance’s charge in fifth, with Adam Morgan sixth in the Mercedes A-Class.
Reigning champion Ashley Sutton might have finished higher had a slower-starting Morgan not halted his electric getaway, but as it was the Subaru Levorg GT still moved forward from 14th to 7th at the chequered flag.
Cammish eventually finished eighth, edging out the BTC Norlin Honda of Chris Smiley in a photo finish, whilst the second Shredded Wheat-backed Motorbase Ford of James Cole rounded out the top ten.
It proved a difficult debut for the HMS Racing Alfa Romeo Giulietta after brash contact between Tom Oliphant (Mercedes) and Rob Austin left the latter with a broken right-rear towlink and forced him into retirement.
There were equally frustrating starts to the 30-race series for the third BMW of Rob Collard, who could only manage 15th, and two-time champion Jason Plato in 20th.
Interestingly, none of the drivers on the option tyre elected to use the loophole in the rules that means running to the grid on option tyres, before swapping to wets before the race start means the tyres have technically been ‘used’.
As a result, drier conditions this afternoon will necessitate those drivers to nominate another of the two remaining races to use the softer rubber in.
The second race of the afternoon gets underway at 14:25.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 31 | Jack GOFF |  |
WIX Racing with Eurotech | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 27:11.465 | 55.934 | 1 | |
| 2 | 2 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 0.547 | 55.900 | 3 |
| 3 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 2.481 | 56.204 | 5 |
| 4 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 27 | 3.577 | 56.268 | 9 | |
| 5 | 3 | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 27 | 11.29 | 56.530 | 7 | |
| 6 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
MAC Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 27 | 12.263 | 56.433 | 13 | |
| 7 | 1 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 27 | 14.578 | 56.039 | 18 |
| 8 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 15.087 | 56.335 | 4 |
| 9 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 15.115 | 56.547 | 16 | |
| 10 | 20 | James COLE | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 27 | 15.612 | 56.434 | 14 | |
| 11 | 39 | Brett SMITH | |
WIX Racing with Eurotech | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 16.352 | 56.707 | 10 | |
| 12 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 27 | 24.724 | 56.933 | 23 | |
| 13 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER | |
AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing | MG6 | 27 | 25.244 | 56.870 | 24 | |
| 14 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 27 | 27.530 | 57.199 | 17 | |
| 15 | 5 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 28.106 | 57.108 | 19 |
| 16 | 15 | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 27 | 28.689 | 56.885 | 15 | |
| 17 | 14 | James NASH | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 29.739 | 56.914 | 26 | |
| 18 | 12 | Tom BOARDMAN | |
AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing | MG6 | 27 | 30.860 | 57.041 | 28 | |
| 19 | 19 | Bobby THOMPSON | |
Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars | Volkswagen CC | 27 | 31.281 | 56.978 | 27 | |
| 20 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 27 | 32.190 | 57.170 | 29 |
| 21 | 44 | Michael CAINE | |
Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars | Volkswagen CC | 27 | 36.255 | 57.266 | 30 | |
| 22 | 60 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 36.635 | 56.742 | 20 | |
| 23 | 28 | Josh PRICE | |
Autoglym Academy Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 27 | 40.825 | 57.285 | 31 | |
| 24 | 23 | Sam SMELT | |
AmD with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 27 | 52.214 | 57.784 | 32 | |
| 25 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing | Volkswagen CC | 26 | 1 Lap | 57.171 | 25 | |
| 26 | 600 | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team GardX Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 25 | 2 Laps | 56.064 | 2 | |
| 27 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Power Maxed TAG Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 25 | 2 Laps | 56.642 | 21 |
| R | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
Power Maxed TAG Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | DNF | 55.849 | 12 |
| R | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta | 6 | DNF | 1:08.040 | 11 | |
| R | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 6 |
| R | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 8 | |
| R | 21 | Mike BUSHELL | |
Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing | Volkswagen CC | 0 | DNF | 22 |