Colin Turkington opened the British Touring Car Championship proceedings in dominant fashion as the Silverline Subaru BMR Racing driver led home team-mate Jason Plato in the first race of the weekend at Croft.
The Ulsterman claimed the second win in as many meetings for the Subaru Levorg GT by a margin of 1.353 seconds ahead of Plato, who took his fourth consecutive podium after completing a hat-trick last time out at Oulton Park.
Ashley Sutton completed the podium in the MG6 GT despite enduring pressure throughout the race distance from Team IHG Rewards Club’s Jack Goff, but the BMW driver was unable to find a way past the reigning Renault Clio Cup UK champion around the tight 2.13 mile Yorkshire venue.
Andrew Jordan rounded out the top five in his Pirtek Racing Ford Focus ST, ahead of an impressive sixth placed Jake Hill in the RCIB Insurance Racing Toyota Avensis.
The race itself was punctuated by a hat-trick of safety car deployments, the first after a dramatic opening lap.
Having made a strong start on the outside line from second, Eurotech Racing’s Daniel Lloyd made contact with Turkington into the left-hand first corner, sending the Honda Civic Type-R into the gravel trap and out of proceedings. Championship leader Sam Tordoff went off behind in avoidance and his trip through the gravel trap ensured he would finish just 13th from 4th on the grid.
Disaster struck for Adam Morgan after the restart as the WIX Racing Mercedes A-Class was forced to pit and then retire with a suspected broken rear suspension following contact amid a crowd of cars disputing the lower reaches of the top ten.
A second safety car deployment was due as Mark Howard sent his Team BKR Volkswagen CC head-first into the tyre barrier at the first corner in an almost identical location to Lloyd, and Aiden Moffat completed a hat-trick of incidents at the corner in the final third of the extended race distance.
Defending champion Gordon Shedden suffered a disastorous opening contest and only claimed a singular point from the encounter with 15th, though team-mate Matt Neal is now on par with Tordoff in the Drivers standings after outscoring the Yorkshireman in 12th.
The race was superbly controlled by Subaru, with Plato backing the field up at each restart to allow Turkington to pull clear before cementing second with his own pace. Whether the cars will retain that performance with the variables of the hard Dunlop compound tyre and success ballast on board remains to be seen, but a second win in three weeks for Turkington makes ominous reading indeed.
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 | 18 | 29:56.374 | 1:25.266 | 1 |
| 2 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 1.353 | 1:25.402 | 4 |
| 3 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 18 | 2.305 | 1:26.051 | 3 |
| 4 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 2.689 | 1:25.971 | 6 |
| 5 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 18 | 6.429 | 1:26.009 | 8 | |
| 6 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 7.136 | 1:26.044 | 11 | |
| 7 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 7.306 | 1:26.044 | 13 |
| 8 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 18 | 8.025 | 1:26.846 | 9 | |
| 9 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 8.279 | 1:25.930 | 12 | |
| 10 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 9.191 | 1:26.618 | 14 | |
| 11 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 9.343 | 1:26.401 | 16 | |
| 12 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 10.208 | 1:26.923 | 17 |
| 13 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 12.409 | 1:26.240 | 5 |
| 14 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 12.903 | 1:26.947 | 19 | |
| 15 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 13.969 | 1:26.555 | 15 |
| 16 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 14.453 | 1:26.545 | 21 |
| 17 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 18 | 14.895 | 1:27.147 | 18 |
| 18 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 15.471 | 1:26.491 | 23 | |
| 19 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 18 | 16.124 | 1:27.050 | 22 | |
| 20 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 17.269 | 1:27.044 | 26 | |
| 21 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 18 | 18.927 | 1:26.826 | 27 | |
| 22 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 19.299 | 1:27.644 | 28 | |
| 23 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 18 | 19.72 | 1:28.278 | 31 | |
| 24 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 20.407 | 1:27.978 | 30 | |
| R | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | 6 Laps | 1:26.325 | 20 | |
| R | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 9 | 9 Laps | 1:26.580 | 25 |
| R | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 9 | 9 Laps | 1:27.398 | 24 | |
| R | 84 | Kelvin FLETCHER | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 9 | 9 Laps | 1:26.811 | 29 | |
| R | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 7 | 11 Laps | 1:27.919 | 32 | |
| R | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 6 | 12 Laps | 1:26.276 | 10 | |
| R | 23 | Daniel LLOYD | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 0 | 18 Laps | N/A | 2 | |
| R | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 0 | 18 Laps | N/A | 7 |