Colin Turkington won the first race of the day at Knockhill in dominant fashion, with Gordon Shedden and Rob Austin completing the podium places.
Click here for the full race one results.
The two rear-wheel drive cars of Austin and Turkington made fantastic starts from the front row of the grid, with the rest of the field making it through the first lap cleanly and without incident. Despite getting off the line well, Austin on the soft tyres was quickly reeled in by Turkington, who made his move up the inside of the Audi man at the hairpin on the second lap.
Turkington had a comfortable run from there to the flag, winning the race by 3.4s despite having to manage a safety car period caused after his teammate Nick Foster and Paul O’Neill collided on lap eight. O’Neill had moved around the outside of the hairpin but Foster tagged his rear, and despite the returning racer trying his best to hold a spin, his Insignia was speared into the tyre barriers at the pit entrance, forcing the safety car to come out for some time.
When the racing resumed on lap 14 Turkington quickly built his lead once again, while Austin – now in third after Shedden forced his way past on lap four – was nearly caught out by a late-breaking Jason Plato at the hairpin.
It was clear throughout the race that the MG did not have the pace to compete at the front, with Plato soon succumbing to Adam Morgan’s Toyota Avensis and Sam Tordoff squandering ninth place to Dan Welch on lap 20. Plato nonetheless made up some ground on title rivals Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan with fifth place.
Having dropped Plato, Morgan was free to pursue the battle for second place, with Austin having reeled Shedden in. Austin made numerous attempts to get past the Honda driver on the front straight, but eventually had to settle for third with Morgan closing up on the back of his machine.
Behind Plato, Rob Collard had a competitive run to sixth place after some great overtakes, his move on Jordan a particularly impressive one after the pair rubbed sides. Jordan harried Neal for seventh across the line after a good run out of the hairpin, but the works driver had just enough momentum to hold onto the place. Tordoff claimed ninth after Dan Welch’s late retirement, while Aron Smith completed the top ten.
Mike Bushell finished 18th on his debut despite a pitstop, sandwiched between the s2000 duo of Liam Griffin in 17th and Lea Wood in 19th. Aiden Moffat also made the finish on his debut in the series, ending the race one lap down on the leaders, while Kieran Gallagher retired from the race with two laps to go.