AmD Tuning’s Sam Tordoff took a well-managed victory from pole position in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton, controlling the gap to Dan Cammish.
Polesitter Tordoff was under immediate pressure from fellow front-row starter Jason Plato, who would then receive a drive-through penalty for being out of position on the starting grid which dropped him out of contention.
That meant Cammish inherited second position but spent the majority of the race defending from Adam Morgan, who made a welcome return to the podium in his Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes A-Class.
He, in turn, was under pressure from Josh Cook’s BTC Racing Honda Civic that ultimately placed fourth with Tom Oliphant the fastest of the rear-wheel drive runners to complete the top five, albeit nearly two seconds back.
Plato’s Power Maxed Racing team-mate Rob Collard was sixth, spending most of the opening encounter in splendid isolation, ahead of the Honda duo of Rory Butcher and Matt Neal.
Butcher held on after earlier contact at the final chicane when Chris Smiley tagged the back of the older shape FK2 Civic, before the pair both cut the chicane and resumed.
Team BMR’s Ash Sutton would eventually get past Smiley for ninth with the Northern Irishman rounding out the top ten.
Snetterton race winner Tom Ingram was 11th, ahead of the two BMW 3 Series’ of Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington, who both struggled with the championship ballast of being the top two in the series.
In 14th position was Bobby Thompson, who put in an impressive performance to score points in the Team HARD Volkswagen after he suffers with food poisoning this weekend.
Another driver under the weather is Ollie Jackson, who managed to bring home a point in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus RS.
Plato would eventually recover to 17th position behind Jake Hill following his drive-through penalty.
The second British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton is set to get underway at 14:35 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 600 | I | Sam TORDOFF |  |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 20:55.872 | 1:17.345 | 1 |
| 2 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 0.403 | 1:17.464 | 3 |
| 3 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 16 | 0.714 | 1:17.399 | 4 |
| 4 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 1.208 | 1:17.584 | 5 |
| 5 | 15 | M | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 3.189 | 1:17.640 | 7 |
| 6 | 9 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 4.660 | 1:17.626 | 10 |
| 7 | 6 | I | Rory BUTCHER | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 8.923 | 1:17.926 | 6 |
| 8 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 10.562 | 1:17.811 | 17 |
| 9 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 16 | 10.863 | 1:17.651 | 12 |
| 10 | 22 | I | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 11.446 | 1:17.791 | 9 |
| 11 | 80 | M | Tom INGRAM | |
Team Toyota GB with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 16 | 12.883 | 1:17.926 | 8 |
| 12 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 13.422 | 1:17.880 | 13 |
| 13 | 1 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 16 | 15.118 | 1:17.954 | 11 |
| 14 | 19 | I | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 16 | 17.272 | 1:18.133 | 15 |
| 15 | 48 | I | Ollie JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 16 | 18.034 | 1:18.307 | 14 |
| 16 | 24 | I | Jake HILL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 16 | 19.126 | 1:18.320 | 20 |
| 17 | 11 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 22.321 | 1:17.925 | 2 |
| 18 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 25.134 | 1:18.553 | 25 |
| 19 | 12 | I | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 16 | 25.337 | 1:18.582 | 23 |
| 20 | 32 | I | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | |
Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 16 | 25.837 | 1:18.494 | 21 |
| 21 | 303 | I | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 27.670 | 1:18.518 | 22 |
| 22 | 3 | I | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 16 | 29.823 | 1:17.769 | 16 |
| 23 | 777 | I | Michael CREES | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 16 | 38.288 | 1:19.375 | 27 |
| 24 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 16 | 38.454 | 1:18.347 | 19 |
| 25 | 37 | I | Rob SMITH | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 16 | 39.463 | 1:18.964 | 28 |
| 26 | 28 | I | Nicolas HAMILTON | |
ROKiT Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 16 | 41.643 | 1:19.840 | 24 |
| 27 | 8 | I | Mark BLUNDELL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 16 | 46.446 | 1:19.750 | 26 |
| 28 | 4 | I | Sam OSBORNE | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 16 | 48.601 | 1:20.016 | 30 |
| 29 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 16 | 1:04.720 | 1:18.266 | 18 |
| 30 | 41 | I | Carl BOARDLEY | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 15 | + 1 LAP | 1:19.786 | 29 |
