Colin Turkington made it two wins out of two in the second British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Brands Hatch, finishing ahead of Subaru team-mate Jason Plato as Mat Jackson and Rob Collard dropped out of title contention.
Turkington led the entire race from lights-to-flag, despite some heavy pressure from team-mate Plato in the latter half. Plato, who is now out of title contention, looked like he was trying to find a way into the lead, before seemingly settling for second, and defending for Turkington, after receiving a team order over the radio.
The former double champion had earlier got himself into second position with a last-minute move up the inside of Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin, who later retired to the pits with problems on his car.
Honda’s Gordon Shedden battled his way up to third position to close the gap to championship leader Sam Tordoff, with the reigning champion having crucially passed MG’s Josh Cook on lap seven and then moved up another position with Austin’s demise.
Cook held on to take fourth, ahead of Tordoff in fifth, who now has just a two point lead at the top of the standings.
The race had earlier required a two-lap safety car period when another title contender, Honda’s Matt Neal, had a big accident on the exit of Druids. Neal’s car had cut out between Turns 1 and 2, before he was able to restart it having lost a handful of places. As he came out of Turn 2, Neal made contact with the MG of Ashley Sutton, pitching him head-on into the barriers.
Despite the shunt, Neal remains in mathematical contention heading into the final race, albeit 20 points behind with only 22 available and starting from the very back of the grid.
Ciceley Racing’s Aiden Moffat finished in sixth, taking his best result of the season, ahead of Motorbase’s Mat Jackson in seventh, who is now out of championship contention.
The second Ciceley Mercedes of Adam Morgan was eighth, ahead of Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram in ninth and WSR’s Rob Collard in tenth, who also dropped out of the title hunt.
After the race, the top seven were selected to be reversed for the final race of the year, giving Jackson pole and crucially putting Tordoff in front of his rivals in the battle for the crown.
The final race of the year takes place at 17:09 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON |  |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 17 | 28:52.932 | 1:31.593 | 1 |
| 2 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 17 | 1.128 | 1:31.577 | 4 |
| 3 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 1.535 | 1:31.784 | 5 |
| 4 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 17 | 1.827 | 1:32.108 | 3 |
| 5 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 17 | 2.431 | 1:31.912 | 10 |
| 6 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 17 | 2.931 | 1:32.033 | 8 | |
| 7 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 17 | 3.046 | 1:32.020 | 11 | |
| 8 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 17 | 3.336 | 1:32.098 | 6 | |
| 9 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 17 | 3.626 | 1:32.045 | 14 | |
| 10 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 17 | 3.963 | 1:32.421 | 12 |
| 11 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 4.650 | 1:32.231 | 19 | |
| 12 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 17 | 5.697 | 1:32.514 | 15 | |
| 13 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 17 | 7.043 | 1:32.410 | 31 | |
| 14 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 17 | 10.510 | 1:32.451 | 27 | |
| 15 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 17 | 13.455 | 1:32.597 | 18 | |
| 16 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 17 | 14.421 | 1:32.627 | 16 | |
| 17 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 17 | 14.904 | 1:32.461 | 30 | |
| 18 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 15.214 | 1:32.638 | 17 | |
| 19 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 17 | 16.729 | 1:32.792 | 20 | |
| 20 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 17 | 16.743 | 1:32.550 | 13 |
| 21 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 17 | 16.808 | 1:32.295 | 23 |
| 22 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 17 | 19.672 | 1:32.944 | 21 | |
| 23 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 17 | 20.541 | 1:33.187 | 28 |
| 24 | 84 | Kelvin FLETCHER | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 17 | 20.888 | 1:32.958 | 24 | |
| 25 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 17 | 25.510 | 1:33.751 | 25 | |
| 26 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 17 | 36.284 | 1:34.323 | 26 | |
| 27 | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 17 | 44.694 | 1:32.977 | 22 | |
| 28 | 34 | Tony GILHAM | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 17 | 1:03.135 | 1:33.296 | 29 | |
| R | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 14 | 3 Laps | 1:32.326 | 2 | |
| R | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 9 | 8 Laps | 1:31.916 | 9 |
| R | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 3 | 14 Laps | 1:31.570 | 7 |