Tom Ingram claimed victory ahead of Jack Goff in a dramatic first British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Silverstone which was red-flagged early after a huge shunt involving Rob Collard, Andrew Jordan and Will Burns.
Tom Ingham led his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis to victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone, finishing ahead of Eurotechs’ Jack Goff with Ciceley Motorsports’ Adam Morgan coming across the line in third. Whilst this was the top three from qualifying (albeit in a different order), the story behind was somewhat chaotic.
The race started in damp and chilly conditions, with a fully dry racing line but being quite damp off line. This initially concerned most of the drivers who had to start on the inside line.
Stephen Jelley pulled into the pits after the green flag with front lower wishbone damage. Jake Hill (whose car was smoking on the green flag lap) got a great start, going into 4th place on the first lap but Tom Ingram did even better, managing to get by Jack Goff by the first corner.
Hill then went to go for third place into Brooklands and went wide, clearly with some issues and he ended up pitting with power steering problems. Rob Collard had a blinding start, moving from 22nd to 16th by the end of the first lap!
Morgan maintained third position and Ingram put in a fastest lap before the rain started to fall on lap 4. The track became steadily wetter and wetter as the cars all started to struggle for grip on their slick tyres and their windscreen wipers being switched on for most of the lap. Rob Austin, who was on the option tyres seemed to be struggling more than others on the prime tyre and started falling backwards at a rapid pace.
Ingram went wide into Copse but Goff failed to capitalise on that and Ingram stayed ahead, a position he would never fall from. Whilst the conditions were clearly difficult, Ingram drove faultlessly and managed to pull his Toyota away from the rest of the field.
Morgan, on the other hand, started to reel Goff in and was getting ever closer to challenge for second.
Colin Turkington had a difficult start but then appeared to get his BMW working in the slippery conditions and managed to get by Matt Neal for 4th place.
Almost everyone seemed to be going wide into Copse as the rain continued to fall and the teams started to get ready with the wet tyres.
Whorton-Eales had a really strong start and first few laps, getting past Turkington and running 4th for several laps, holding off Turkington and Dave Newsham.
At the half way point, the top six were Ingram, Goff, Morgan, Whorton-Eales, Turkington and Newsham.
On lap 14, Turkington finally managed to get back by Whorton-Eales for 4th place and Ash Sutton was then on his tail, flashing his lights as he went, eager to keep with fellow title protagonist Turkington.
Lap 15 saw a huge shunt between Collard, Burns and Andrew Jordan. Collard was clipped by the MG of Aron Taylor-Smith and ended on the grass – and was then a complete passenger due to the rain fall and ended up back on the track in the path of both Will Burns and Jordan, leaving all three with huge damage. Collard walked away from his destroyed BMW with a slight limp and rubbing his back, seeming winded but was waving at the crowds as he got into the doctors car.
After a brief few laps under the Safety Car, as the carnage was cleared, the action continued with the cars now all bunched up. Ingram got a fabulous re-start and gapped Goff immediately, only for the red flag to be brought out almost immediately and due to the amount of laps covered, the result was called.
Race 2 takes place at 14:32 BST
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 80 | Tom INGRAM |  |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 20:36.912 | 59.744 | 2 | |
| 2 | 31 | Jack GOFF | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 0.728 | 59.579 | 1 | |
| 3 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 1.754 | 59.506 | 3 | |
| 4 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 2.973 | 1:00.070 | 8 |
| 5 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 3.775 | 59.801 | 10 |
| 6 | 10 | Ant WHORTON-EALES | |
AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 18 | 5.107 | 59.989 | 7 | |
| 7 | 17 | Dave NEWSHAM | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 18 | 6.525 | 59.965 | 15 | |
| 8 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 7.339 | 1:00.139 | 23 | |
| 9 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 8.704 | 1:00.238 | 6 | |
| 10 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 9.588 | 1:00.131 | 24 | |
| 11 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 11.240 | 1:00.271 | 12 |
| 12 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts | Audi S3 | 18 | 11.489 | 1:00.121 | 20 | |
| 13 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 12.661 | 1:00.155 | 4 |
| 14 | 39 | Brett SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 13.292 | 1:00.352 | 9 | |
| 15 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 14.165 | 1:00.348 | 28 |
| 16 | 37 | M | Rob HUFF | |
Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 14.740 | 1:00.357 | 27 |
| 17 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 15.572 | 1:00.150 | 13 |
| 18 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Norlin Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 18 | 16.094 | 1:00.670 | 19 | |
| 19 | 40 | M | Árón TAYLOR-SMITH |  |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 18 | 18.105 | 1:00.358 | 26 |
| 20 | 6 | Rory BUTCHER | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo | Ford Focus | 18 | 19.495 | 1:00.221 | 14 | |
| 21 | 28 | M | Josh PRICE | |
A-Plan Academy | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 20.276 | 1:00.353 | 18 |
| 22 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo | Ford Focus | 18 | 20.830 | 1:01.256 | 22 | |
| 23 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 22.239 | 59.676 | 11 |
| 24 | 3 | Mat JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo | Ford Focus | 17 | + 1 LAP | 59.769 | 17 | |
| 25 | 303 | M | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 16 | + 2 LAPS | 1:00.100 | 30 |
| R | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 14 | DNF | 1:00.458 | 16 |
| R | 7 | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 14 | DNF | 1:06.468 | 31 | |
| R | 5 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Team BMW | BMW 125i M Sport | 13 | DNF | 1:00.367 | 21 |
| R | 61 | Will BURNS | |
Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing | Volkswagen CC | 13 | DNF | 1:00.363 | 25 | |
| R | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 12 | DNF | 1:00.868 | 29 | |
| R | 24 | Jake HILL | |
TAG Racing | Volkswagen CC | 2 | DNF | 1:09.119 | 5 | |
| NS | 66 | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | – | DNS | N/A | – |