Colin Turkington takes lights-to-flag race one win

Colin Turkington made the ideal start to race day at Snetterton with a first win of the BTCC season in the opening race of the weekend.

Turkington inherited pole after Gordon Shedden was excluded from qualifying and was one of a dozen drivers who elected to run the soft compound Goodyear tyre at the first opportunity in sweltering weather conditions at the Norfolk circuit.

When the lights went out, Turkington made the best start in his BMW to lead the way into Riches but would soon come under pressure from Tom Ingram as the EXCELR8 driver tried to get ahead in the Hyundai.

Ingram – also running the soft tyre – tried more than once to get ahead through the opening lap but couldn’t make the move stick, with Turkington then edging away to build a slender advantage.

Through the mid-way point of the race, Ingram started to come back at the leader with a series of quick laps but Turkington then responded as he extended his advantage to ultimately secure the victory by just under three seconds.

Ingram took third spot ahead of the Toyota of Rory Butcher, which would run in a lonely third place throughout as the Scot proved to be unable to match the two drivers ahead but had the legs on the medium tyre-shod Ford Focus of Ollie Jackson, which jumped up from sixth tor fourth at the start.

Jackson would prove to be the cork in the bottle to an extent with pressure from behind throughout from the BMWs of Stephen Jelley and Adam Morgan.

Jelley was the first driver to have a go at getting ahead of the Ford but then slipped a place when Morgan took advantage to sneak ahead on the exit of Wilson, only for Jelley – and the Vauxhall of Dan Lloyd – to then get back ahead on lap five.

Jackson would do his best to keep Jelley at bay but the pressure finally paid off at Hamilton on lap eight, with Jelley then edging away to secure the place.

Lloyd would try and make a similar move on Jackson a few laps later but instead ran wide through Oggies which enabled Morgan to nip back ahead, but he didn’t have time to pressure Jackson into a mistake – meaning Jackson held on fof fifth ahead of Morgan and Lloyd.

Tom Oliphant would take eighth having joined the fight late on after finally battling ahead of the ballast-heavy Focus of points leader Jake Hill.

A fine drive from Hill saw him take ninth spot, with Chris Smiley, Ash Sutton and Jack Goff chasing behind. Sutton had at one stage tried to make a move on Hill for the place but lost out to Smiley and Goff in the process, although he would then battle back ahead of the Cupra before the finish.

From the back of the grid, Shedden came through to score the final point in 15th point, helped by a spin on the final lap for Tom Chilton’s BMW at Wilson.

All 29 drivers made it the finish, although the Toyota of Sam Smelt was ailing towards the end as he dropped down the field to finish plum last.