Colin Turkington leads WSR 1-2 in first Oulton Park race

Colin Turkington took a commanding win from pole position in a processional first race at Oulton Park, leading home team-mate Rob Collard for a West Surrey Racing one-two, and taking the joint-lead of the series in the process.

Very little incident of note took place after the first lap, where Turkington made a perfect start from the front, and Collard jumped up from fourth to slot into Old Hall ahead of Jason Plato’s Triple Eight MG.

Behind the top three, Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden had a straightforward run to fourth, ahead of Rob Austin in the Audi A4, who passed Triple Eight’s Sam Tordoff at the start.

Austin and Tordoff were side-by-side through Island on the first lap, but the former was able to hang on and draw away from the MG, which finished sixth.

Mat Jackson, Nick Foster, Tom Ingram and Marc Hynes completed the top 10, with the latter scoring his best result in the series to date.

Such was the lack of passing, many regular front-runners found themselves mired in the midfield.

Reigning champion Andrew Jordan made no forward progress and could only manage 15th in his Eurotech Racing Honda Civic, having lost two places at the start.

And just ahead of him, Matt Neal made one of the only passes of note in his Honda Civic Tourer, fighting past Team BMR’s Alain Menu on the penultimate lap to finish 13th. The move was later ruled to be illegal, and the positions were reversed.

The race was clean throughout, bar an incident where Hunter Abbott and Warren Scott made contact at Knickerbrook on lap one, causing both the Audi and the Vauxhall to fall to the tail of the field.

Aiden Moffat retired his Chevrolet Cruze in the pits with a misfire at the end of the lap, with Ollie Jackson joining him in the troubled Proton Gen-2 a lap later.

Chris Stockton was another retirement in his BTC Racing Chevrolet Cruze on lap two, while Eurotech Racing’s Martin Depper had a late off behind Lea Wood and stopped with a puncture in the pits.