Dan Rowbottom charged to his maiden race victory and led a Halfords Racing with Cataclean 1-2 at a dramatic opening race at Oulton Park.
A cloudy day at Oulton Park and spectators galore set the scene for the 10th round of the British Touring Car Championship.
As announced this morning by Motorbase, Andy Neate was not going to take part during today’s races and Team HARD’s Nicolas Hamilton also did not start on the grid due to a fuel pipe issue.
At lights out, it was a strong start for both Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type Rs as Shedden led ahead of his teammate Dan Rowbottom into Turn 1.
Colin Turkington found himself off at Turn 3 (Cascades) which put him at the back of the field.
For the following laps, Adam Morgan fended off P3 from Rory Butcher’s Toyota Corolla, also battling side-by-side.
Meanwhile pole-man Senna Proctor struggled at the start to fall to P6, but then got into P5 on Lap 3.
Jack Mitchell, Josh Cook and Sam Smelt were all given time penalties due to being out of place on the start grid.
By Lap 4, Tom Ingram got from P28 to P19 in his pursuit for a redemption drive after yesterday’s qualifying whilst Ash Sutton made a pitstop.
Jack Goff, who is the only driver to score at all races so far, was attacking Jack Hill for P8.
On Lap 8, Jason Plato dived into the inside of home-hero Tom Oliphant at the final corner, pitting the BMW around and into the pathway of Chris Smiley and Rick Parfitt Jr. who hit the Oliphant’s driver’s door.
This caused a red flag to recover Smiley’s, Parfitt’s and Oliphant’s cars.
In a six-lap sprint to the finish, Dan Rowbottom had a perfect getaway to make a pass on his teammate Gordon Shedden into Turn 1.
Behind the pack jostled for positions, with Rory Butcher working hard in the fight for P4.
From thereon in, it was a battle between the front-running Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type Rs with Dan Rowbottom defending his lead from Gordon Shedden.
Lap after lap, the battle grew tense but the duo fought cleanly but nose-to-tail.
Rowbottom kept the lead to claim his first BTCC race victory and to make it the seventh winner this season.
He also got the fastest lap with a 1m26.734s.
Shedden and Adam Morgan completed the podium spots, ahead of Rory Butcher and Stephen Jelley.
Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat finished sixth ahead of Jason Plato and Jake Hill.
Senna Proctor was in ninth and Jack Goff was in tenth, the latter driver scoring points in every race so far this season.
Debutant Jack Mitchell finished in 22nd.
| Position | Driver | Team |
| 1 | Daniel Rowbottom | Team Dynamics |
| 2 | Gordon Shedden | Team Dynamics |
| 3 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport |
| 4 | Rory Butcher |
Toyota GAZOO Racing UK (C) |
| 5 | Stephen Jelley | Team BMW (C) |
| 6 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing |
| 7 | Jason Plato | Power Maxed Racing |
| 8 | Jake Hill | MB Motorsport (C) |
| 9 | Senna Proctor | BTC Racing |
| 10 | Jack Goff | Team HARD |
| 11 | Carl Boardley | Laser Tools Racing |
| 12 | Ollie Jackson | MB Motorsport (C) |
| 13 | Dan Lloyd | Power Maxed Racing |
| 14 | Ash Sutton | Laser Tools Racing |
| 15 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing |
| 16 | Árón Taylor-Smith | Team HARD |
| 17 | Tom Chilton | Ciceley Motorsport |
| 18 | Colin Turkington | Team BMW (C) |
| 19 | Tom Ingram |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars |
| 20 | Jack Butel |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars |
| 21 | Jade Edwards | BTC Racing |
| 22 | Jack Mitchell | Team HARD |
| 23 | Sam Smelt |
Toyota GAZOO Racing UK (C) |
| 24 | Sam Osborne |
Motorbase Performance (C) |
| 25 *DNF | Tom Oliphant | Team BMW (C) |
| 26 *DNF | Chris Smiley |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars |
| 27 *DNF | Rick Parfitt Jr. |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars |
| 28 *DNS | Nicolas Hamilton | Team HARD |
| 29 *DNS | Andy Neate |
Motorbase Performance (C) |
