Photo: PSP Images

Andrew Jordan takes lights-to-flag fourth win in Croft opener

Andrew Jordan made the most of pole position at Croft to secure his fourth win of the BTCC season and move further up the championship standings.

The West Surrey Racing driver had topped the times in Saturday’s chaotic qualifying session to take his first pole since 2014 and then led the race from start-to-finish to add to his impressive win tally this season.

Light rain ahead of the start had led to concerns over the weather but the whole field would go with slick tyres, with the conditions improving on track as the race wore on.

Jordan had built a slender lead before the race went behind the Safety Car after Rob Collard went off at Sunny Out, with the BMW racer then able to keep his advantage after the restart to beat Chris Smiley to victory – smashing the lap record in the process on the resurfaced layout.

Smiley maintained his position at the start ahead of Tom Chilton and would see off the pressure of the Ford racer throughout to snare his first podium with BTC Racing’s FK8 Honda Civic, with Colin Turkington and Tom Oliphant following behind – the pair surviving contact just before the caution period going through the complex.

Dan Cammish in his Honda took sixth having battled ahead of Ash Sutton’s Subaru early, with Sutton, Jason Plato, Josh Cook and Matt Neal rounding out the top ten.

Ollie Jackson had impressed in the early stages to run inside the top six but was forced out when damage sustained hitting a tyre stack at Sunny caused a puncture that put him off at Clervaux, whilst Michael Crees went off at the Complex on the penultimate lap.

Having started from the back, Rory Butcher was able to climb up to 18th by the finish, although team-mate Sam Tordoff failed to score having been forced to put after a trip across the grass.