Dan Lloyd claimed the inaugural TCR UK series title with victory in a wet first race at Donington Park, after his main title rival Ollie Taylor slid out of second at the first corner of the opening lap.
WestCoast Racing’s Lloyd led from lights-to-flag in the shortened 15-minute race, which had been delayed and then reduced in length due to the wet weather and an earlier accident in one of the support races.
His closest challenge looked set to come from the Honda of Taylor, but the Pyro Motorsport driver slid wide at the first corner of the opening lap to drop down to sixth, making his already outside title chance an even slimmer prospect.
Lloyd was at ease at the front of the field, pulling away by over a second a lap to eventually win by over 16 seconds to claim his eighth win of the season.
Lloyd’s Swedish team-mate Andreas Bäckman finished in second, although the runner-up spot had looked set to go the way of JP Racing’s Josh Price after the Honda driver fought his way into the position on lap five with a strong pass at the Old Hairpin.
However, Price then slowed on the start-finish straight just two laps later when his oil pressure warning light came on, with Price retiring to the pitlane for the issue to be investigated.
Price’s retirement allowed Bäckman to move back into second, although he came under pressure late in the race from the Hondas of Finlay Crocker and Taylor, who had fought his way back into the race after his first lap slide.
Maximum Motorsport’s Stewart Lines was fifth and the best CUPRA, ahead of the third WestCoast Racing Volkswagen of Jessica Bäckman in sixth – with the 20-year-old having never previously raced in the wet.
The second Maximum Motorsport CUPRA of Carl Swift took seventh, ahead of Lewis Kent’s Hyundai in eighth.
Sean Walkinshaw brought his older-spec Honda Civic home in a distant ninth, over a minute off the pace.
Darelle Wilson failed to take the start of the race after his Vauxhall Astra picked up an issue as the field headed onto the warm-up lap.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 16:55 and will also run for 15 minutes.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 23 | Dan LLOYD |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 15:04.513 | 1:21.470 | 1 |
| 2 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 16.782 | 1:22.920 | 2 |
| 3 | 8 | Finlay CROCKER | |
Verizon Connect Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 17.538 | 1:22.517 | 7 |
| 4 | 32 | Oliver TAYLOR | |
Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 11 | 18.680 | 1:22.316 | 4 |
| 5 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | CUPRA TCR V3 DSG | 11 | 27.139 | 1:23.286 | 5 |
| 6 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 30.901 | 1:23.084 | 3 |
| 7 | 45 | Carl SWIFT | |
Maximum Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 11 | 37.535 | 1:22.730 | 8 |
| 8 | 38 | Lewis KENT | |
Essex & Kent Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 37.918 | 1:23.314 | 9 |
| 9 | 55 | Sean WALKINSHAW | |
Sean Walkinshaw Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 11 | 1:06.089 | 1:24.525 | 11 |
| R | 28 | Josh PRICE | |
JP Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:22.604 | 10 |
| R | 50 | Darelle WILSON | |
DW Racing | Vauxhall Astra TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 6 |