BMW’s Colin Turkington took a lights-to-flag victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park, with Honda’s Dan Cammish and BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan completing the podium.
Turkington got a strong start to lead into the first corner, whilst behind him Cammish had to fend off a challenge from the fast-starting BMW of Jordan into the first sequence of turns, with the Team Dynamics driver eventually prevailing in second.
That gave Turkington the chance to open up a one-second gap by the end of the first lap, although Cammish did make small inroads into the reigning champion’s lead until lap five, when his team-mate Matt Neal went off at Druids.
As Neal, then running in sixth, turned into the high-speed right-hander the front-left wheel on his Honda detached, pitching the three-time champion heavily into the barriers on the outside of the corner and requiring a five-lap safety car period to allow his car to be recovered.
At the restart Turkington once again pulled clear of Cammish, eventually taking his third win of the season by just over two seconds.
Jordan completed the podium, remarkably taking his sixth visit of the year to the rostrum but his first without winning.
AmD Tuning’s Rory Butcher finished in fourth and as the leading Independent driver, having got past team-mate Sam Tordoff on the opening lap as the second AmD Honda slipped from the front row of the grid to fifth, where he would take the chequered flag.
The third WSR BMW of Tom Oliphant was sixth, despite applying plenty of pressure to Tordoff, just ahead of Toyota’s Tom Ingram in seventh.
Subaru’s Ash Sutton was eighth, although the BMR driver was involved in a couple of incidents in the race. Sutton made contact with the left-rear corner of Adam Morgan’s Mercedes on lap 13 as he made a late move up the inside at Cascades, giving him then ninth but causing damage to the Mercedes that saw Morgan retire.
Sutton then passed former team-mate Jason Plato for eighth on the penultimate lap, the duo having earlier made contact at Hislop’s on lap 11.
Power Maxed Racing’s Plato and Motorbase Performance’s Ollie Jackson completed the top ten, the latter having passed team-mate Tom Chilton on lap three when slight contact pushed Chilton wide at the final corner.
Notably neither of the BTC Racing Hondas cracked the points after their difficult qualifying session, with Chris Smiley heading Josh Cook in 16th and 17th respectively.
Trade Price Car’s Mark Blundell was the only other retirement from the race when he pulled his Audi S3 off the circuit at Hislop’s on lap 14 whilst running in last with steam emanating from under the bonnet of his car.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:50 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 | M | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 29:34.083 | 1:26.484 | 1 |
| 2 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 2.021 | 1:26.344 | 3 |
| 3 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 2.731 | 1:26.611 | 4 |
| 4 | 6 | I | Rory BUTCHER | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 7.222 | 1:26.835 | 5 |
| 5 | 600 | I | Sam TORDOFF | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 7.613 | 1:27.001 | 2 |
| 6 | 15 | M | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 8.109 | 1:26.825 | 7 |
| 7 | 80 | M | Tom INGRAM | |
Team Toyota GB with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 18 | 8.957 | 1:27.096 | 9 |
| 8 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 18 | 9.612 | 1:26.751 | 13 |
| 9 | 11 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 10.654 | 1:27.184 | 8 |
| 10 | 48 | I | Ollie JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 18 | 12.293 | 1:26.909 | 12 |
| 11 | 12 | I | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 12.783 | 1:27.159 | 17 |
| 12 | 3 | I | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 18 | 13.862 | 1:27.158 | 14 |
| 13 | 24 | I | Jake HILL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 18 | 15.696 | 1:27.430 | 10 |
| 14 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 16.147 | 1:27.537 | 15 |
| 15 | 9 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 16.390 | 1:27.501 | 18 |
| 16 | 22 | I | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 17.173 | 1:27.779 | 16 |
| 17 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 18.631 | 1:27.694 | 22 |
| 18 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 19.607 | 1:27.659 | 20 |
| 19 | 19 | I | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 20.358 | 1:27.711 | 21 |
| 20 | 41 | I | Carl BOARDLEY | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 21.070 | 1:28.053 | 19 |
| 21 | 32 | I | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | |
Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 21.655 | 1:27.996 | 23 |
| 22 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 18 | 22.031 | 1:28.168 | 24 |
| 23 | 28 | I | Nicolas HAMILTON | |
ROKiT Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 18 | 22.912 | 1:28.139 | 25 |
| 24 | 303 | I | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 23.172 | 1:27.782 | 30 |
| 25 | 37 | I | Rob SMITH | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 18 | 25.053 | 1:28.019 | 28 |
| 26 | 4 | I | Sam OSBORNE | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 18 | 32.739 | 1:29.032 | 29 |
| 27 | 777 | I | Michael CREES | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 34.816 | 1:28.826 | 27 |
| R | 8 | I | Mark BLUNDELL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 13 | DNF | 1:28.585 | 26 |
| R | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | DNF | 1:27.386 | 11 |
| R | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 4 | DNF | 1:26.873 | 6 |
