BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan secured a lights-to-flag win in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Croft, leading BTC Racing’s Chris Smiley and Motorbase’s Tom Chilton.
Jordan controlled the race from pole position, twice opening up a margin of just under two seconds over the chasing Honda of Smiley as a mid-race safety car period wiped out his initial lead.
After a cautious opening few laps for the field on a dry circuit with sodden margins, the safety car was then called for on lap seven when Rob Collard went off on mud on the circuit at Sunny Out and hit the tyres, his Vauxhall ending up stranded in the mud.
The safety car was out for five laps before racing resumed, although Motorbase’s Ollie Jackson went off at Turn 1 under the neutralised conditions, dropping him out of what was then eighth place.
Jackson had clipped a tyre stack three laps earlier and damaged the front-left of his car, subsequently being passed by the Subaru of Ash Sutton, with the damage possibly contributing to his off.
Racing resumed on lap 13 and Jordan immediately opened up a comfortable two second margin, whilst Smiley had to hold off a challenge from Chilton for second. In the end Chilton was unable to attempt a serious attempt to pass and had to settle for the final podium place.
BMW’s Colin Turkington was fourth, despite an attempt from his team-mate Tom Oliphant for the position as the safety car came out. Oliphant gave the place back and settled for fifth.
Honda’s Dan Cammish was sixth, having got past Sutton on the opening lap, with the Subaru driver having to settle for seventh.
Power Maxed Racing’s Jason Plato took eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the second BTC Honda of Josh Cook and Honda’s Matt Neal, who passed both Jake Hill and Tom Ingram on successive laps at Sunny In in the closing stages of the race.
Ingram brought his Toyota home in 11th after making progress from 15th on the grid, ahead of Hill’s Audi in 12th.
The penultimate lap of the race saw Team HARD’s Michael Crees go off at the Complex, going backwards into the tyre barriers and dropping out of 24th.
From the back of the grid, AmD’s Rory Butcher took 18th with full ballast and the less-favourable tyre, giving the Scot a reasonable chance of points in race two.
Butcher’s team-mate Sam Tordoff had been batting for the last of the points positions in 15th, but the Honda driver went off the circuit on lap 15 and finished as the last runner on the lead lap in 23rd.
Both Matt Simpson and Nic Hamilton were running at the chequered flag, albeit several laps down after visits to the pitlane, the former being shown a black and orange flag for damage to his front-left corner.
Exceler8 Motorsport’s Sam Osborne also failed to finish, the MG driver spinning off early in the race before returning to the pits.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:40 BST.
Race result
POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
1 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | ![]() |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 29:13.613 | 1:22.194 | 1 |
2 | 22 | I | Chris SMILEY | ![]() |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1.835 | 1:22.598 | 2 |
3 | 3 | I | Tom CHILTON | ![]() |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 18 | 2.685 | 1:22.543 | 3 |
4 | 1 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | ![]() |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 3.259 | 1:22.569 | 4 |
5 | 15 | M | Tom OLIPHANT | ![]() |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 3.472 | 1:22.499 | 5 |
6 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | ![]() |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 4.405 | 1:22.583 | 7 |
7 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | ![]() |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 18 | 4.736 | 1:22.481 | 6 |
8 | 11 | M | Jason PLATO | ![]() |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 6.150 | 1:22.831 | 10 |
9 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | ![]() |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 10.751 | 1:22.948 | 12 |
10 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | ![]() |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 12.561 | 1:22.860 | 13 |
11 | 80 | M | Tom INGRAM | ![]() |
Team Toyota GB with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 18 | 15.460 | 1:23.531 | 15 |
12 | 24 | I | Jake HILL | ![]() |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 18 | 16.361 | 1:23.491 | 9 |
13 | 12 | I | Stephen JELLEY | ![]() |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 17.004 | 1:23.077 | 18 |
14 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | ![]() |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 17.593 | 1:23.703 | 17 |
15 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | ![]() |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 18 | 18.161 | 1:23.602 | 11 |
16 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | ![]() |
Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 18.814 | 1:23.569 | 28 |
17 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | ![]() |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 19.449 | 1:23.760 | 20 |
18 | 6 | I | Rory BUTCHER | ![]() |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 19.841 | 1:23.658 | 29 |
19 | 41 | I | Carl BOARDLEY | ![]() |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 20.581 | 1:23.578 | 21 |
20 | 32 | I | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | ![]() |
Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 22.955 | 1:24.333 | 14 |
21 | 8 | I | Mark BLUNDELL | ![]() |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 18 | 29.810 | 1:24.863 | 27 |
22 | 37 | I | Rob SMITH | ![]() |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 18 | 31.263 | 1:25.466 | 25 |
23 | 600 | I | Sam TORDOFF | ![]() |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:27.812 | 1:23.701 | 26 |
R | 777 | I | Michael CREES | ![]() |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 16 | DNF | 1:24.731 | 22 |
NC | 28 | I | Nicolas HAMILTON | ![]() |
ROKiT Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 16 | NCF | 1:24.815 | 30 |
NC | 303 | I | Matt SIMPSON | ![]() |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 15 | NCF | 1:23.899 | 19 |
R | 4 | I | Sam OSBORNE | ![]() |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 10 | DNF | 1:27.087 | 23 |
R | 48 | I | Ollie JACKSON | ![]() |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 8 | DNF | 1:24.881 | 8 |
R | 19 | I | Bobby THOMPSON | ![]() |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 7 | DNF | 1:25.396 | 24 |
R | 9 | M | Rob COLLARD | ![]() |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 6 | DNF | 1:25.530 | 16 |