Colin Turkington serene among the chaos at Croft

West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington simply drove away from the field to win the first race in dominant fashion at Croft, finishing more than seven seconds ahead of Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden in a chaotic race.

Turkington held his lead from pole ahead of the fast starting Shedden, who pressured the BMW 125i over the opening tour, but gradually dropped away over the shortened 14-lap encounter.

But while the race was straighforward for the top two, it was anything but for the battling pack behind. Triple Eight’s Jason Plato drove a masterful defensive race to hold off Turkington’s team-mate Rob Collard, reigning champion Andrew Jordan and Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal in a race-long fight.

And in the second main battle pack in the top 10, Team BMR’s Alain Menu passed Triple Eight’s Sam Tordoff for seventh at the Esses on lap 10, followed through by Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson, who made fantastic progress from a lowly grid position.

Completing the top 10 behind Tordoff was Rob Austin Racing’s Hunter Abbott, taking his best finish in the BTCC to date, running on the soft tyres.

The start was delayed due to an apparent technical issue with the lights, and when it finally got under way, all hell broke loose.

Neal got sideways on the exit of Clervaux, possibly after contact from Jordan behind, and in the melee behind him, Rob Austin was tapped into a spin, and Adam Morgan also took damage and parked his Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class.

Nick Foster then went for a lurid spin across the infield in his BMW 125i and drove straight into the pits and retirement with broken suspension.

It was a race largely defined by messy midfield scraps, with Austin tapping Warren Scott’s Vauxhall Insignia at the hairpin on lap five, causing him to tag Jack Clarke and cause significant damage to the front left of the Ford Focus.

Fabrizio Giovanardi and Aron Smith also tangled at Sunny Out on lap eight, dropping the Volkswagen CC to 23rd, while Austin’s busy race eventually saw him rise to 13th with barely a straight panel on his Audi A4.

Scott slowed with bodywork damage and finished 25th, while Aiden Moffat finished 20th with white smoke billowing out of his Chevrolet Cruze.

Jack Goff, another driver delayed at the start, was also involved in some contact towards the tail of the field with Clarke, finishing 19th.

Amazingly, only two cars failed to finish the race, with another notable result coming for Eurotech Racing’s Martin Depper, who took his first points in the BTCC in 14th.