Colin Turkington won the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Thruxton ahead of the Airwaves duo of Mat Jackson and Fabrizio Giovanardi, who scored his first podium since returning to the series.
Turkington’s second win of the season was relatively comfortable for the Northern Irishman, although the chaos that ensued lower down the order still made for an enticing race.
Giovanardi got away well when the lights went out but Jack Goff and Adam Morgan were caught napping by Turkington, who blasted around the pair of them into second place. The field bunched together as they headed down to Cobb, and Rob Collard tagged Morgan’s rear as the pair turned in, with the WIX Racing driver’s attempts to straighten his car resulting in contact with Jason Plato, which broke the MG’s rear suspension, curtailing a disappointing weekend for Plato.
A sideways moment for Giovanardi handed Turkington the initiative, and he duly obliged to take the lead at Churches, one which – unlike at Donington a fortnight ago – he would not relinquish.
Mat Jackson forced his way past Collard for fourth into the chicane at the end of lap three, and set about chasing down Jack Goff, who in turn was in pursuit of Jackson’s teammate Giovanardi.
A moment of controversy then occurred though, when the safety was car brought out following a worrying accident for Ollie Jackson, who went straight on into the tyre wall at Church, the Welch Motorsport driver winded in the crash. As the cars headed to the back of the circuit, marshall safety car boards and yellow flags appeared to be displayed, but Jackson closed on Goff and passed the Insignia driver before they reached the safety car. Jackson insisted after the race however that the green flags were out when he made his move.
Jackson retained his place when the race resumed, with Turkington sprinting off into the lead to avoid being caught by the regrouped pack. Andrew Jordan used the restart to try and make his way past Collard, but the eBay Motors driver just held his nerve with Gordon Shedden losing out in the action as his teammate Matt Neal passing him for seventh.
The safety car returned to the track shortly afterwards however, with Simon Belcher becoming the third car to go off at Church in two races, his car disappearing from view completely as he flew through the tyres. Belcher himself signaled to show he was okay, but when the racing resumed there were only five laps of the extended race distance remaining.
Turkington once again made a break for it at the front, with Jordan finally passing Collard on the run to the final chicane. Neal tried to follow him through but Collard held firm, allowing Shedden to sneak back ahead of his teammate.
The next time round, Shedden had a go at getting through but pushed Collard on, with the latter electing to skip the chicane thus holding on to his place. A mad minute of racing then ensued, as Jackson passed his teammate for second with Goff trying to follow suit before being passed by Jordan and Shedden – who had passed Collard. This brought up another moment of controversy, as Shedden made his move at Church, which by that stage was covered by double yellow flags after the spate of incidents that had occurred earlier.
The pair then hunted down Giovanardi, but the Italian held on to claim a podium at the scene of his last victory in the series. Goff drove well to keep hold of sixth, while Aron Smith salvaged points from a weekend that promised so much more, just ahead of Adam Morgan.
After Neal hit Collard again, the pair took an excursion through the grass at Cobb a corner later. They rejoined sandwiching Sam Tordoff, but Neal dropped down to 23rd by the finish, with the MG driver ninth and Collard tenth after a bruising affair.
Top ten result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 19 | 19 laps | 1:17.699 | 5 |
| 2 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 3.272 | 1:17.897 | 6 |
| 3 | 7 | I | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI |  |
Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 5.649 | 1:17.894 | 1 |
| 4 | 1 | I | Andrew JORDAN | |
Pirtek Racing | Honda Civic | 19 | 5.983 | 1:18.124 | 9 |
| 5 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 19 | 6.232 | 1:17.994 | 10 |
| 6 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Vauxhall Insignia | 19 | 6.726 | 1:17.794 | 2 |
| 7 | 40 | I | Árón SMITH |  |
CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen Passat CC | 19 | 7.518 | 1:18.437 | 15 |
| 8 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 19 | 7.711 | 1:18.337 | 3 |
| 9 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | |
MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 19 | 9.418 | 1:18.519 | 11 |
| 10 | 10 | I | Rob COLLARD | |
eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 19 | 10.489 | 1:17.959 | 8 |