Colin Turkington took advantage of his soft option tyre to launch from second in his Team BMW car to take the lead on lap one and would lead throughout at Brands Hatch.
Turkington and Dan Cammish, in the NAPA Racing UK car, both started on the soft tyre on the front row. Cammish would also get jumped by Jake Hill in the MB Motorsport car and teammate Ash Sutton who were both on the medium tyre on the opening run before braking at Druids.
It was the second start of the race after a collision at the end of lap one between Dan Rowbottom, teammate of Cammish and Sutton, Stephen Jelley and Adam Morgan, teammates of Turkington, and Andrew Watson in the Power Maxed Racing car.
The collision took place after Rowbottom and Jelley made contact on the main straight and the remaining cars could not escape the contact. As a result there was a lengthy red flag period to remove the cars and to repair the barrier.
Sutton then passed Hill up the inside at clearways on the opening lap putting no one between himself and the leader but unable to catch finishing second. This gave Hill a poor run allowing Cammish to get a run and pass him as they entered Paddock Hill Bend again leaving them in the positions they would finish with Cammish in third and Hill in fourth.
Tom Ingram in the EXCELR8 Hyundai came home in fifth place putting in a solid opening race performance. Ingram initially passing Bobby Thompson off the line before hounding down and eventually passing Rory Butcher on lap 16 into Paddock Hill bend. It was the reigning champions second attempt at the move after attempting the same move on lap eight.
Thompson in the Team HARD car would then take Butcher himself on the same lap as Ingram after Butcher’s soft tyres seemed to wear away at the last laps of the race. Butcher, in the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK would finish behind in seventh.
Josh Cook in the One Motorsport car would come in eighth after starting in that position bringing home some good points for the opening round of the day. Finishing 2.346 seconds behind Butcher Cook just could not quite catch the group in front.
Ricky Collard in the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK car put in a storming performance to move up from 14th on the grid to ninth in the race. The best of his moves being on Dan Lloyd getting a run on the exit of Paddock Hill Bend and lunging up the inside at Druids.
Lloyd would complete the top 10 in the Team HARD car after only losing his one and only position from ninth on the grid to Collard. The pace of the Toyota driver proving too much as he made the move with six laps to go and stretched out a two second gap.
Race results
POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
1 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 14:43.255 | 48.461 | 2 | |
2 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 1.335 | 48.375 | 4 | |
3 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 1.716 | 48.555 | 1 | |
4 | 24 | M | Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 5.712 | 48.776 | 3 | |
5 | 1 | M | Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 9.592 | 48.796 | 7 | |
6 | 19 | I | Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 11.010 | 48.948 | 6 | |
7 | 6 | M | Rory BUTCHER | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 | 11.779 | 48.821 | 5 | |
8 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 14.125 | 48.953 | 8 | |
9 | 37 | M | Ricky COLLARD | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 | 14.634 | 49.017 | 14 | |
10 | 123 | I | Daniel LLOYD | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 16.652 | 49.191 | 9 | |
11 | 42 | M | George GAMBLE | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 | 21.400 | 49.096 | 16 | |
12 | 40 | I | Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 23.360 | 49.019 | 12 | |
13 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 24.103 | 49.107 | 21 | |
14 | 77 | M | Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 24.287 | 49.158 | 23 | |
15 | 3 | M | Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 24.629 | 48.821 | 11 | |
16 | 14 | M | Ronan PEARSON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 24.976 | 48.945 | 10 | |
17 | 17 | I | Dexter PATTERSON | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 25.319 | 49.319 | 15 | |
18 | 96 | I | Jack BUTEL | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 25.576 | 48.987 | 13 | |
19 | 88 | I | Mikey DOBLE | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 26.427 | 49.499 | 22 | |
20 | 99 | I | Jade EDWARDS | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 30.103 | 49.736 | 18 | |
21 | 28 | I | Nicolas HAMILTON | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 30.838 | 49.658 | 25 | |
22 | 70 | I | Will POWELL | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 33.150 | 49.816 | 26 | |
23 | 22 | M | Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 33.872 | 49.715 | 27 | |
R | 12 | M | Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 0 | DNF | N/A | 17 | |
R | 32 | M | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 0 | DNF | N/A | 19 | |
R | 11 | I | Andrew WATSON | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 0 | DNF | N/A | 20 | |
R | 33 | M | Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 0 | DNF | N/A | 24 |