Senna Proctor has taken victory in the third and final British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park today, following two red flag stoppages due to heavy incidents.
Proctor started from pole position in this reversed grid race, just as he had done in the first race of the day. The Honda driver got a much better start than he had done previously, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Sutton powering alongside and moving up into first through Cascades.
Further back though, all hell broke loose. Jade Edwards was tagged sideways by Jason Plato as a result of the pack checking up to avoid the spinning Ford of Sam Osborne, who had made contact with Chris Smiley.
Unfortunately, a whole host of cars then got collected in the ensuing carnage, including Jack Butel, Jack Mitchell, Nicolas Hamilton and a few others. Inevitably, the red flags were waved and the race was halted so that the marshals could recover the stricken vehicles.
At the restart, Sutton had it all to do again, and again Proctor held his ground – but this time things went a little too far.
Contact on the rear quarter of Sutton’s Infiniti sent him into a spin on the exit of Old Hall Corner, before he was then taken out of the race by his own teammate Carl Boardley at Cascades.
Sutton’s nearest title rival, Tom Ingram, couldn’t capitalise though as he too had dramas on lap one which forced him back into the pitlane.
Once things finally calmed down, it was Proctor who emerged as the leader, with Stephen Jelley in second place and Gordon Shedden in third. Further back, Tom Oliphant had made up a staggering eighteen positions from the last row of the grid in his freshly-repaired BMW.
Amidst the opening lap carnage, Aiden Moffat had picked up quite substantial frontal damage, and perhaps as a result of this, Adam Morgan was beginning to close down on him for fourth place, while Dan Rowbottom and Jake Hill weren’t too far behind either.
A few places further back, Aron Taylor-Smith was seemingly struggling for pace. In consecutive laps, the Irishman lost out to Josh Cook and Daniel Lloyd at turn one, before then conceding to Plato at the chicane.
Colin Turkington, meanwhile, needed to salvage as many points as possible from this race. Soon enough, he managed to get by Rory Butcher for eighth place at Lodge Corner, and it wasn’t long before Tom Chilton went through on the Toyota too. Smiley and Lloyd then added salt into his wounds, as both dived past the race two winner on the inside line at Old Hall Corner.
That wouldn’t be the end of Butcher’s misfortune though. Boardley’s brakes failed onboard the Infiniti at Druids – the fastest corner on the circuit – and as he span out of contention he slammed into Butcher as a result. Both drivers were quickly out of their cars, but with two laps remaining the race was red-flagged for the second time, and on this occasion it wouldn’t be restarted.
With that, Proctor took victory for the first time this season albeit behind the safety car, with Jelley and Shedden completing the podium.
Moffat held onto fourth despite a stoved-in front end, while Morgan continued his strong weekend in fifth.
Rowbottom emerged as the best of the championship contenders in sixth position while Hill finished seventh ahead of Turkington in eighth. Chilton picked up a rare top ten finish in ninth, just over a second ahead of Smiley.
Outside of the top ten, Cook split the Vauxhall pair of Lloyd and Plato in twelfth. Oliphant worked his way up to fourteenth, just behind Plato – the driver that punted him out of race one. Taylor-Smith, meanwhile, held on for the final point.
Despite his retirement, Sutton remains the points leader in the drivers’ championship standings, thanks to Ingram’s similarly bad luck. Rowbottom is now within twenty points of the two leaders though in third.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 18 | I |  |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 8 | 11:40.464 | 1:26.411 | 1 |
| 2 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 8 | 2.183 | 1:26.495 | 3 |
| 3 | 52 | I | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 8 | 4.313 | 1:26.754 | 4 |
| 4 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 8 | 7.478 | 1:27.084 | 5 |
| 5 | 33 | I | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 8 | 7.999 | 1:27.039 | 7 |
| 6 | 32 | I | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 8 | 9.136 | 1:27.018 | 8 |
| 7 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 8 | 9.475 | 1:27.102 | 6 |
| 8 | 2 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 8 | 10.215 | 1:26.527 | 12 |
| 9 | 3 | I | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 8 | 12.280 | 1:27.154 | 13 |
| 10 | 22 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 8 | 13.471 | 1:27.144 | 14 |
| 11 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 8 | 13.769 | 1:27.106 | 21 |
| 12 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 8 | 14.415 | 1:26.719 | 27 |
| 13 | 11 | I | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 8 | 14.871 | 1:27.337 | 18 |
| 14 | 15 | M | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 8 | 15.298 | 1:26.945 | 28 |
| 15 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 8 | 16.156 | 1:27.193 | 16 |
| 16 | 31 | I | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 8 | 16.491 | 1:26.889 | 25 |
| 17 | 48 | M | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 8 | 18.774 | 1:27.676 | 26 |
| 18 | 23 | M | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 8 | 19.342 | 1:26.826 | 19 |
| 19 | 62 | I | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 8 | 21.356 | 1:27.373 | 23 |
| 20 | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | PHSC with BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 8 | 22.744 | 1:27.109 | 20 |
| 21 | 80 | I | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 8 | 49.238 | 1:26.026 | 10 |
| R | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 8 | DNF | 1:27.141 | 9 |
| R | 41 | I | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 8 | DNF | 1:27.101 | 11 |
| R | 1 | I | |
Ashley SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 0 | DNF | N/A | 2 |
| R | 4 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 0 | DNF | N/A | 15 |
| R | 96 | I | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 0 | DNF | N/A | 17 |
| R | 19 | I | |
Jack MITCHELL | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 0 | DNF | N/A | 22 |
| R | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 0 | DNF | N/A | 24 |
| NS | 44 | M | |
Andy NEATE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | – | DNS | N/A | – |