Andrew Jordan was victorious in the opening race of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, beating Jason Plato to the honours with Matt Neal completing the podium.
The victory was a fairly routine one for the reigning champion, although his winning margin of 0.538s would suggest otherwise.
Starting from pole, Jordan covered MG’s Plato off the start, with the pair also keeping the fast-starting Colin Turkington behind them. Jordan held a huge slide through Paddock Hill and kept hold of his lead, but the returning Alain Menu was not so lucky, his first race back in the series memorable for the wrong reasons, as he slid off into the infield.
The Swiss returned to the action, but finished as the last runner in 28th place, three laps down on Jordan.
Further round the lap, Neal barged his way past Turkington between Surtees and Clearways, as they and Shedden began to escape from the chasing pack.
Mat Jackson had made a great getaway and was running well in sixth, but that position was short-lived as Aron Smith rammed him on the third lap on the exit of Clearways, with Austin passing the pair of them as Jackson dropped to sixteenth, recovering only one position between then and the end of the race.
Turkington appeared to struggle as the race went on, with Shedden easily dispatching of the eBay Motors driver before Austin muscled through at Druids with six laps to go.
The Northern Irishman fell further down the order, eventually succumbing to teammate Rob Collard and the aforementioned Smith, after forcing the former off the circuit on two ocassions.
With Jordan and Plato making a break at the front, Neal and Shedden were able to cruise home to third and fourth, although they were nearly caught out by a charging Austin, who finished just on the tail of the pair of Civic Tourers, the Honda team securing a podium in its maiden outing with the machine.
With positions six-to-eight decided on the last lap, Tom Ingram and Sam Tordoff were left to close out the top ten. 20-year-old Ingram lost three positions from his grid slot, but kept his head during the race to finish by far the highest of all the rookies.
Nick Foster and Jack Goff finished just outside of the top ten, while Adam Morgan was 13th ahead of the second returning champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi, who headed home his teammate Jackson after his trip through the gravel.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN |  |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 24 | 19:46.613 | 48.718 | 1 |
| 2 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuelsave | MG6 | 24 | 0.536 | 48.763 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 24 | 9.396 | 48.916 | 4 |
| 4 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 24 | 9.806 | 48.896 | 5 |
| 5 | 101 | I | Rob AUSTIN | |
Exocet Racing | Audi A4 | 24 | 10.156 | 48.890 | 11 |
| 6 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 24 | 13.133 | 49.048 | 10 |
| 7 | 40 | I | Árón SMITH |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen Passat CC | 24 | 14.522 | 49.097 | 7 |
| 8 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 24 | 15.341 | 48.892 | 3 |
| 9 | 80 | I | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 24 | 15.736 | 49.094 | 6 |
| 10 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 24 | 16.188 | 49.096 | 12 |