Carl Boardley and Adam Shepherd were victorious in a pair of chaotic and incident-strewn TCR UK races at Oulton Park on Saturday.
Race one
At the start of the opening race, pole-sitter Boardley made a good start as Shepherd leapt past Callum Newsham and into second before the first corner.
A dramatic pair of opening laps saw numerous instances of contact between race leader Boardley and challenger Shepherd, with Boardley sliding into his fellow CUPRA driver through Cascades on the first tour, and the duo then going side-by-side at the end of the lap.
Perhaps the best launch from the line was from the CUPRA of Bradley Hutchison, who jumped from sixth on the grid to third, just behind the battling leaders.
Further back, Will Powell and Steve Laidlaw made contact into the hairpin, turning the former’s Honda around and spinning it into the path of team-mate Bradley Thurston. The latter would later retire with damage.
Going into the second lap, Newsham and Joe Marshall made contact into the first corner, spinning Newsham’s Hyundai onto the grass at Old Hall corner, as Marshall assumed fourth in his Audi.
By lap three, Shepherd was in strife in his CUPRA in second, going wide at Druids. The following lap he went deep into the hairpin and dropped to fourth, with visible damage no his left-rear wheel. Shepherd duly backed off as a result.
That meant it was up to Hutchison to chase down Boardley, although Marshall soon joined the mix, making contact with Hutchison into the chicane on lap five. On lap nine, having just broken the lap record, the Rob Boston Racing driver dived inside Hutchison for second at Cascades and set about chasing down Boardley.
By now, however, Boardley had a margin and although Marshall was able to reduce it to less than half a second, reigning champion Boardley would go on to record his first win of the season.
Marshall was second, with Hutchison completing the podium having dropped back by over seven seconds.
Shepherd held fourth, ahead of the CUPRA of Luke Sargeant in fifth and Darron Lewis in sixth, although the latter finished ahead on track before being hit with a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 |  |
Carl BOARDLEY | CBM with Hart GT | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | 20:27.764 | 1:26.590 | 1 | |
| 2 | 99 | |
Joe MARSHALL | Rob Boston Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 0.464 | 1:26.273 | 4 | |
| 3 | 17 | |
Bradley HUTCHISON | MPH Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | 7.022 | 1:26.676 | 6 | |
| 4 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | 12.279 | 1:27.438 | 3 | |
| 5 | 115 | |
Luke SARGEANT | R.S. Vehicle Sales with Area Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | 13.383 | 1:27.162 | 7 | |
| 6 | 285 | |
Darron LEWIS | DLR with JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 17.857 | 1:27.054 | 5 | |
| 7 | 27 | |
Will BEECH | Capture Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 14 | 39.561 | 1:28.567 | 8 | |
| 8 | 22 | |
Rick KERRY | EDF Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 14 | 44.690 | 1:29.254 | 9 | |
| 9 | 100 | |
Steve LAIDLAW | Capture Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 47.614 | 1:28.784 | 10 | |
| 10 | 81 | |
Stewart LINES | Maximum Motorsport with MPH Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 14 | 1:04.647 | 1:30.414 | 11 | |
| 11 | 77 | |
Mark SMITH | Richmond Fire Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 14 | 1:04.964 | 1:29.886 | 12 | |
| 12 | 16 | |
Callum NEWSHAM | JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | + 1 LAP | 1:26.348 | 2 | |
| 13 | 7 | |
Will POWELL | Go-Fix Honda by Sport77 | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 13 | + 1 LAP | 1:27.847 | 14 | |
| R | 28 | |
Bradley THURSTON | Sport77 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | DNF | 1:33.388 | 13 | |
| R | 19 | |
Jeffrey ALDEN | Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing | Opel Astra TCR | 3 | DNF | N/A | 15 |
Race two
Championship promoter Stewart Lines started the reverse-grid race from pole position, with Steve Laidlaw alongside.
At the start, Shepherd was quick off the line and challenging Lewis, when the latter made contact with Laidlaw and was knocked back towards Shepherd, turning him around in front of the field.
Shepherd avoided any other cars and hit the Old Hall Corner armco side-on, and then hauled himself out of the gravel to continue in the race.
At Cascades, Lines’ talent ran out in the lead and he spun his Audi in front of the pack unassisted, causing havoc behind.
Will Beech spun his Volkswagen in avoidance, before being collected head-on by Marshall’s Audi.
The chaos meant that after a one-lap safety car intervention, the race would be red flagged before the completion of the second lap, and the race was restarted with the original grid positions.
The safety car led the field away under that restart, but at the end of the lap the lights were turned off at the last second, leaving seventh-place Boardley six seconds adrift of the top half dozen cars.
Lines led the first lap after the resumption, as Shepherd quickly got himself into fourth by the end of the lap.
The CUPRA driver made light work of getting by Lewis and Laidlaw in quick succession on the next lap, before Lines effectively allowed him into the lead into the chicane.
By lap three, Lines and Laidlaw in second and third were holding the pack up, creating a bunch of six cars running in close quarters.
In the process, Boardley got himself into second by the end of lap four and set about chasing down Shepherd.
That process was made easier by a late-race safety car for the stricken CUPRA of Mark Smith. When racing resumed with two laps to go, Boardley tried to claim a second win but Shepherd prevailed to take victory by just under half a second.
Confusion reigned after the race, as stewards initially penalised Shepherd for his team working on the car when the 1-minute board was shown before the restart, his team having had to put a rear tyre on at the front due to damage sustained at the first start.
After appealing the decision, Shepherd’s appeal was upheld as officials realised that “the time boards where not shown in the correct time slots”, handing him back the win ahead of Boardley.
Lewis completed the podium ahead of Newsham and Sargeant. Only nine drivers finished the race, with Marshall, Beech and Alden failing to take the restart.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 16:22.413 | 1:26.482 | 7 | |
| 2 | 1 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | CBM with Hart GT | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 0.475 | 1:26.268 | 9 | |
| 3 | 285 | |
Darron LEWIS | DLR with JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1.484 | 1:26.609 | 5 | |
| 4 | 16 | |
Callum NEWSHAM | JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 2.934 | 1:26.730 | 11 | |
| 5 | 115 | |
Luke SARGEANT | R.S. Vehicle Sales with Area Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 4.924 | 1:27.005 | 6 | |
| 6 | 100 | |
Steve LAIDLAW | Capture Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 7.313 | 1:28.458 | 2 | |
| 7 | 22 | |
Rick KERRY | EDF Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 12.161 | 1:29.292 | 3 | |
| 8 | 81 | |
Stewart LINES | Maximum Motorsport with MPH Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 12.933 | 1:30.365 | 1 | |
| 9 | 28 | |
Bradley THURSTON | Sport77 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 13.340 | 1:29.861 | 14 | |
| R | 17 | |
Bradley HUTCHISON | MPH Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:27.039 | 8 | |
| R | 77 | |
Mark SMITH | Richmond Fire Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 4 | DNF | 1:30.776 | 10 | |
| R | 7 | |
Will POWELL | Go-Fix Honda by Sport77 | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 1 | DNF | 2:33.079 | 13 | |
| NS | 19 | |
Jeffrey ALDEN | Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing | Opel Astra TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 15 | |
| NS | 27 | |
Will BEECH | Capture Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 4 | |
| NS | 99 | |
Joe MARSHALL | Rob Boston Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | – | DNS | N/A | 12 |