BTC Racing’s Josh Cook became Thruxton’s most winning touring car driver after holding off Jake Hill for victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race in Hampshire.
At the start, Hill launched his BMW away from the line well to briefly steal the lead from Cook, but after defending the inside line into the Complex, Cook elected to take the outside line through Campbell corner and emerged back in the lead after the initial right-left flick.
Further back, Team BMW’s Colin Turkington was challenging NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton for third, but on the exit of Seagrave corner Dan Cammish pulled alongside, bringing Tom Ingram and Daniel Rowbottom with him.
As the quintet went into Noble, Rowbottom hit the rear of Cammish’s Ford, sending him spinning towards the infield, taking Ingram onto the grass as the Excelr8 Motorsport driver sought to avoid the incident.
Both Cammish and Ingram had to pit to have their cars seen to, the latter for removal of grass to prevent overheating in his Hyundai, dropping them to the back of the field.
At the front, having initially opened up a 1.3-second lead in the first few laps, Hill soon clawed in Cook’s advantage by lap six and then ran close to the Honda for the rest of the race, ultimately unable to get quite close enough to mount an effective challenge.
Hill took second, just under a second behind Cook after losing ground on the final lap, whilst Sutton completed the podium, finishing almost nine seconds adrift of the leading duo.
Rowbottom claimed fifth, not picking up any significant damage after his earlier clash with Cammish.
BTC’s Jason Plato was sixth, passing Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden on the tenth lap. Shedden would later retire to the pits with one lap to go, dropping him out of the points.
Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan was seventh, the BMW driver looking racy having made five places and fought past Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley for what was then ninth on lap 11, later passing Excelr8’s Daniel Lloyd on the same lap that Shedden dropped out.
Lloyd finished in eighth as the leading Hyundai, whilst the top ten was completed by Jelley and Power Maxed Racing’s Ash Hand.
Toyota’s Rory Butcher just missed out on the top ten and was 11th, ahead of Tom Chilton’s Hyundai in 12th.
Ingram re-joined the race at the tail of the pack and passed two cars on his way to finishing in 21st.
Motorbase’s Ollie Jackson retired to the pitlane with an issue after four laps, whilst Jade Edwards also pitted with a mechanical issue, before re-joining the race and almost immediately slowing to a standstill as the problem could not be solved in the pits.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:40 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 66 | I |  |
Josh COOK | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 20:40.575 | 1:16.627 | 1 |
| 2 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | ROKiT MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 16 | 0.900 | 1:16.675 | 2 |
| 3 | 1 | M | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 8.957 | 1:16.918 | 5 |
| 4 | 50 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 16 | 9.400 | 1:16.632 | 4 |
| 5 | 32 | M | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 9.816 | 1:16.400 | 6 |
| 6 | 11 | I | |
Jason PLATO | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 10.208 | 1:16.587 | 7 |
| 7 | 33 | I | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 16 | 14.615 | 1:16.581 | 12 |
| 8 | 123 | M | |
Daniel LLOYD | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 15.032 | 1:16.921 | 13 |
| 9 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 16 | 15.625 | 1:16.980 | 10 |
| 10 | 97 | I | |
Ash HAND | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 18.254 | 1:17.298 | 11 |
| 11 | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 22.013 | 1:17.063 | 15 |
| 12 | 3 | M | |
Tom CHILTON | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 24.513 | 1:17.696 | 18 |
| 13 | 777 | I | |
Michael CREES | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 16 | 25.387 | 1:17.373 | 19 |
| 14 | 42 | I | |
George GAMBLE | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 16 | 26.601 | 1:17.716 | 16 |
| 15 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 29.194 | 1:17.908 | 17 |
| 16 | 21 | M | |
Ricky COLLARD | Toyota GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 16 | 30.422 | 1:17.814 | 23 |
| 17 | 19 | I | |
Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 31.232 | 1:17.703 | 14 |
| 18 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 33.917 | 1:18.122 | 20 |
| 19 | 77 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 16 | 34.540 | 1:18.230 | 22 |
| 20 | 17 | I | |
Dexter PATTERSON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 36.721 | 1:18.573 | 26 |
| 21 | 80 | M | |
Tom INGRAM | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 16 | 45.393 | 1:16.445 | 8 |
| 22 | 62 | I | |
Rick PARFITT JR | Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 16 | 57.680 | 1:18.677 | 28 |
| 23 | 20 | I | |
Will POWELL | Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero | CUPRA Leon | 16 | 1:04.760 | 1:18.517 | 29 |
| 24 | 52 | M | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | 1:15.902 | 1:16.737 | 9 |
| 25 | 9 | M | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 1 Lap | 1:16.451 | 3 |
| 26 | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 1 Lap | 1:18.611 | 25 |
| R | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | Rich Energy BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 10 | DNF | 1:18.215 | 21 |
| R | 96 | M | |
Jack BUTEL | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 7 | DNF | 1:18.360 | 27 |
| R | 48 | M | |
Ollie JACKSON | Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan | Ford Focus ST | 4 | DNF | 1:17.684 | 24 |