Motorbase Performance’s Ollie Jackson secured his maiden British Touring Car Championship victory in a frenetic final contest at Silverstone, which had to be restarted following a major incident for Jackson’s team-mate Rory Butcher.
On the initial start, Jackson managed to jump reverse grid polesitter Tom Oliphant to lead the way, and held position as drama unfolded behind towards the end of the lap, with championship protagonist Tom Ingram’s bad luck continuing after being pitched into the barriers at Luffield following his left-front puncture in race two.
Meanwhile, Andy Neate and Jade Edwards again tangled with the former’s Ford ending up in the barrier on the exit of the Luffield, before the race then appeared to settle into more of a rhythm.
That was ultimately short-lived as the encounter was then red-flagged on the seventh tour as the recovering Rory Butcher and Matt Neal made contact on the entry to Maggots,
spearing the Scot’s car into the barrier and resulting in multiple rolls for the wrecked Ford Focus ST which then ended up stationary on the road at Becketts, thankfully with everyone avoiding him.
The race was then restarted as a 12 lap encounter, and Jackson again held station out off the line and maintained the lead heading through Copse, before soaking up race-long pressure from Oliphant.
While the pair made contact at Brooklands once at Brooklands as Oliphant tried the outside line, it was a clean battle for the most part which ultimately saw Jackson take a memorable victory and provide the Kent-based Motorbase squad with some consolation in what was a double DNF with significant damage to Butcher’s car.
Behind Jackson, the hard-charging Ash Sutton came through from the back of the grid following his race two puncture to battle to second, with Oliphant both attacking Jackson for the lead and attempting to defend his second position from the 2017 champion.
On the penultimate lap the pair went side-by-side out of Luffield and gave each other racing room through Woodcote and across the timing line, with Sutton then completing the move into Becketts after staying on the outside through Copse on the final tour.
Oliphant eventually came home to complete the podium in third, while Dan Cammish rounded out an extremely solid day at Silverstone with fourth position following his race one win and race two podium.
Behind him was Adam Morgan’s Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-Benz which rounded out the top five runners, with Senna Proctor progressing to sixth with a positive showing in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 Fastback N.
Thruxton race three winner Josh Cook was next in his BTC Racing Honda Civic, while Aiden Moffat, Tom Chilton and erstwhile championship leader Colin Turkington came home eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
After the defending champion’s victory in race two in which he seized the championship lead, the standings have now flipped again with Sutton’s podium giving him a six point advantage over the Northern Irishman.
In 11th position was Matt Neal despite his contact with Butcher before the red flag, while Bobby Thompson and Chris Smiley managed 12th and 13th respectively.
Carl Boardley’s Team HARD-run BMW 1 Series was then 14th, while MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill fell back in battles for the top ten positions to complete the points-paying positions in 15th.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 48 | I | Ollie JACKSON |  |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 11:48.038 | 58.384 | 2 |
| 2 | 116 | I | Ashley SUTTON | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 0.312 | 58.015 | 26 |
| 3 | 15 | M | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 0.576 | 58.163 | 1 |
| 4 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 1.130 | 58.224 | 8 |
| 5 | 32 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
Carlube Triple R Racing with Mac Tools | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | 3.827 | 58.439 | 7 |
| 6 | 18 | I | Senna PROCTOR | |
Excelr8 Motorsport | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 3.947 | 58.443 | 10 |
| 7 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 4.238 | 58.455 | 4 |
| 8 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 4.472 | 58.581 | 5 |
| 9 | 3 | I | Tom CHILTON | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 4.599 | 58.265 | 11 |
| 10 | 1 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 4.911 | 58.325 | 9 |
| 11 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 5.453 | 58.198 | 6 |
| 12 | 19 | I | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 12 | 6.191 | 58.636 | 13 |
| 13 | 22 | I | Chris SMILEY | |
Excelr8 Motorsport | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 7.178 | 58.593 | 15 |
| 14 | 41 | I | Carl BOARDLEY | |
Team HARD. | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 7.241 | 58.461 | 23 |
| 15 | 24 | I | Jake HILL | |
MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 10.661 | 58.881 | 3 |
| 16 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance Racing with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 10.838 | 58.484 | 19 |
| 17 | 32 | I | Jack BUTEL | |
Carlube Triple R Racing with Mac Tools | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | 11.030 | 58.575 | 17 |
| 18 | 12 | I | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 11.328 | 58.157 | 20 |
| 19 | 8 | I | Tom ONSLOW-COLE | |
RCIB Insurance Racing with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 12.921 | 58.587 | 18 |
| 20 | 4 | I | Sam OSBORNE | |
MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 14.645 | 58.811 | 12 |
| 21 | 28 | I | Nicolas HAMILTON | |
ROKiT Racing with Team HARD. | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 23.487 | 59.735 | 24 |
| R | 9 | I | Jade EDWARDS | |
Power Maxed Car Care Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 6 | DNF | 58.522 | 21 |
| R | 180 | I | James GORNALL | |
GKR TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 4 | DNF | 59.499 | 16 |
| R | 777 | I | Michael CREES | |
The Clever Baggers with BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 27 |
| R | 6 | I | Rory BUTCHER | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus ST | 0 | DNF | N/A | 14 |
| R | 44 | I | Andy NEATE | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus ST | 0 | DNF | N/A | 22 |
| R | 80 | M | Tom INGRAM | |
Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 0 | DNF | N/A | 25 |
