Photo: PSP Images

Andrew Jordan takes Race 1 honours at Thruxton

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Andrew Jordan bounced back from the disappointment of Donington Park in fine style with a second win of the BTCC season in the opening race of the weekend at Thruxton.

The West Surrey Racing man had looked set to take pole position on Saturday before a late session stoppage provided his rivals with the chance to bolt on new tyres for a final run, with the BMW eventually ending up third on the grid as a result.

Making the most of the rear-wheel drive starting prowess of the BMW, Jordan jumped ahead of Dan Cammish on the run to the Complex for the first time and then settled into second place behind poleman Sam Tordoff.

In a race that was largely devoid of action at the front of the field, Tordoff looked like he was controlling proceedings from the front in his Cobra Sport AmD Honda Civic Type R, maintaining a lead of around half a second over Jordan and Cammish behind.

However, having led the way for the first twelve laps, Tordoff found himself being hampered by a battery issue and slowed running through Church as the loss of battery power affected the power steering – allowing Jordan to slip through on the run up Woodham Hill.

From there, the Pirtek Racing man was able to edge away to take his second win of the year, with Tordoff able to nurse his car home to the finish to maintain second ahead of Cammish for his first podium finish of the year.

Just off the podium, Colin Turkington took fourth in his BMW to move into the championship lead ahead of Ash Sutton, with Rory Butcher and Jason Plato rounding out the top six.

Matt Neal took seventh having made one of the few overtakes in the race to get ahead of Ash Sutton’s Subaru going through the final chicane, with contact briefly seeing the Honda tipped sideways, with Rob Collard eighth having also got ahead of Sutton late on.

The past championship leader would end up with ninth place to his name, with Jake Hill completing the top ten in his Trade Price Cars Racing Audi.

Hill had run just outside the top ten in the early laps before a drive through penalty for Tom Oliphant for a false start that left his BMW to finish down in 23rd place.