Rob Collard takes victory in frantic opening Knockhill race

Rob Collard took a convincing win in the first race at Knockhill as West Surrey Racing enjoyed three cars in the top four positions.

Collard took the lead of the race on lap 19, after the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus of Mat Jackson dominated the early stages. Jackson took the lead on the first lap while the BMW trio of Collard, Andy Priaulx and Sam Tordoff battled between themselves.

After some contact between Tordoff and Collard, the former dropped back into the grasps of the front runners with the softer rubber, falling as far as seventh. The race would eventually come back to Tordoff, pulling off a fantastic move on both Gordon Shedden and Rob Austin at the hairpin and closing in on the top three, but it was too late for a realistic podium challenge to take place.

While Jackson made the most of his soft rubber, setting the fastest lap and thus taking pole for race two, his tyres dropped off much quicker than the BMWs of Priaulx and Collard. Jackson soon found himself with a mirror full of Priaulx, but the three-time World Champion could not find a way past the returning Ford Focus driver.

Collard, however, made the most of Priaulx being held up by Jackson, particularly when his team-mate was forced out wide by the Ford, allowing Collard to move up in to second place, before taking the lead just two laps later. Priaulx was unable to find his way past and had to settle for third behind Jackson and race-winner, Collard.

While Tordoff was able to reel the front runners in, the two Hondas of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal found themselves locked in a thrilling battle with the Audi A4 of Rob Austin, all of whom were shod with soft tyres.

Andrew Jordan, Adam Morgan and Colin Turkington, the first of the Team BMR drivers, rounded out the top ten positions.

The race was split by one of the shortest safety car periods of the season on lap seven, when the field was neutralised in order to clear up debris on the track from some of the early race contact.

There were a number of incidents on track, which saw the likes of Aiden Moffat, Kieran Gallagher, Dan Welch and Derek Palmer Jr end their races on the side of the track, while Tom Ingram and Robb Holland were removed from the grid with mechanical issues.

Ingram was able to get back on track and, despite setting a time good enough for the top ten on the race two grid, will have to start from the back after retiring from the opening race.

Championship leader Jason Plato opted to drop back on the formation lap and start from the back of the grid to try and get a good lap in for the race two grid. As a result the Team BMR driver only finished in 23rd, but was able to set a lap time good enough for eighth on the grid in race two.