BTC Racing’s Josh cook won the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the season at Thruxton, as front-runners Colin Turkington and Ash Sutton made contact on the opening lap.
Sutton initially led the race from pole position, but only for the first two corners, as the Laser Tools Racing driver was tagged by Team BMW’s Turkington at the exit of Campbell corner.
Sutton’s Infiniti was pitched into a full pirouette, whilst Cook was able to sneak past the BMW to claim the lead of the race.
Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram then threw his Hyundai up the inside of Turkington’s BMW at the high-speed Church corner to claim second, before the race was neutralised by an early safety car period.
The intervention was required due to a crash involving Gordon Shedden and Chris Smiley, with both cars ending up in the barriers at Goodwood corner.
Shedden was running immediately behind the Ford Focus of Ollie Jackson, who checked up at the preceding corner and caused the Team Dynamics driver to make contact with the rear, before Shedden then went off the circuit as his car unsettled.
That then caused the Civic to enter a spin on the wet grass, re-joining in the path of Smiley’s Hyundai, innocently taking out the Northern Irishman and pitching both drivers into the barriers.
After five laps behind the safety car, racing resumed on lap seven and Ingram immediately tired to pressure Cook for the lead.
However the local racer wasn’t going to be unseated in the ballast-free race, and used his Thruxton confidence – he has now claimed five of his nine BTCC wins at the circuit – to extend his lead to two seconds by the end and win the race.
Ingram thus had to settle for second on his début in Hyundai machinery, with MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill completing the podium, the Ford driver having got into third on the opening lap of the race.
Turkington took the flag in fourth, after losing ground on the opening lap and never really being in a position to fight back. However, the Northern Irishman was later handed a 17-second penalty for the contact with Sutton, dropping him to tenth. Turkington initially finished ahead of BTC Racing’s Dan Cammish in fifth, becoming fourth after the penalty.
Cammish had been running in seventh early on, behind both Rory Butcher and Jason Plato, but on lap 13 he expertly passed both when Plato had made a move on the Toyota ahead and the scrap held them both up on the exit of Seagrave corner.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Butcher held on to take fifth after immediately repassing Plato, with the latter having to settle for sixth.
Team Dynamics’ Dan Rowbottom was seventh after coming through from 16th on the grid with a solid drive, ahead of the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan in eighth.
After a strong recovery drive, Sutton initially completed the top ten, the reigning champion having dropped to 26th at the end of the first lap. Sutton then gained a place to ninth following Turkington’s penalty.
Sutton charged up to 21st on the first lap of restarted racing, and picked off numerous drivers over the coming laps before emerging behind team-mate Aiden Moffat on lap 16, with him passing with ease on the following lap.
Moffat claimed 11th at the flag, ahead of Laser Tools Racing team-mate Carl Boardley in 12th.
Jack Goff was the best of the new Team HARD. CUPRAs in 13th, ahead of Ciceley Motorsport’s Tom Chilton in 14th and a recovering Tom Oliphant in 15th, the BMW driver having also spun out on the run up to the chicane on the opening lap with cold tyres.
Aside from Shedden and Smiley, the only other retirement from the race was Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley, who brought his BMW back to the pits on lap ten, having been running in eighth, with an issue on his car.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:35 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 66 |  |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 29:33.844 | 1:16.500 | 2 | |
| 2 | 80 | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 2.298 | 1:16.622 | 4 | |
| 3 | 24 | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 4.227 | 1:16.808 | 7 | |
| 4 | 2 | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 4.825 | 1:16.864 | 3 | |
| 5 | 27 | |
Dan CAMMISH | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 9.323 | 1:17.088 | 12 | |
| 6 | 6 | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 19 | 11.758 | 1:17.317 | 5 | |
| 7 | 11 | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 19 | 12.046 | 1:17.025 | 11 | |
| 8 | 32 | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 12.607 | 1:17.113 | 16 | |
| 9 | 33 | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 19.612 | 1:17.537 | 14 | |
| 10 | 1 | |
Ashley SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 19 | 21.259 | 1:16.625 | 1 | |
| 11 | 16 | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 19 | 22.760 | 1:17.606 | 21 | |
| 12 | 41 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 19 | 26.391 | 1:18.075 | 13 | |
| 13 | 31 | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 19 | 26.72 | 1:18.102 | 15 | |
| 14 | 3 | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 27.138 | 1:17.909 | 20 | |
| 15 | 15 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 27.448 | 1:17.122 | 6 | |
| 16 | 123 | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 19 | 27.791 | 1:17.863 | 22 | |
| 17 | 4 | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 29.846 | 1:17.844 | 23 | |
| 18 | 40 |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 19 | 31.038 | 1:18.263 | 19 | |
| 19 | 48 | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 33.636 | 1:17.577 | 9 | |
| 20 | 99 | |
Jade EDWARDS | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 38.774 | 1:18.623 | 17 | |
| 21 | 96 | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 41.015 | 1:18.416 | 28 | |
| 22 | 88 | |
Glynn GEDDIE | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 19 | 41.932 | 1:18.681 | 27 | |
| 23 | 23 | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 19 | 42.886 | 1:17.996 | 26 | |
| 24 | 44 | |
Andy NEATE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 45.545 | 1:18.930 | 24 | |
| 25 | 62 | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 45.928 | 1:18.380 | 25 | |
| 26 | 28 | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 17 | 2 Laps | 1:19.427 | 29 | |
| R | 12 | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 10 | DNF | 1:17.222 | 18 | |
| R | 52 | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 8 | |
| R | 22 | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 0 | DNF | N/A | 10 |