Aiden Moffat secured victory at Round 19 of the British Touring Car Championship after defending his pole position from Jake Hill.
The Infiniti driver was pressured and pestered by MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill all-race-long but held his ground for all 18 laps at Croft Circuit.
Coming off the start, Colin Turkington was looking competitive and fought tooth-and-nail for second position with Jake Hill.
The MB Motorsport driver made the most of the situation to commence his pursuit on Moffat in his Infiniti.
Meanwhile, Tom Oliphant in his BMW found himself out of shape at the Jim Clark Esses.
He ended up facing the wrong way on Lap 1 after contact towards the back of the midfield, but he was able to continue on and finish the race.
One driver who suffered also on the opening lap was Ollie Jackson in his Ford Focus ST.
He got himself tangled up from Chris Smiley, and Team Dynamics driver Dan Rowbottom into the final hairpin. Jackson shortly retired from the race.
Josh Cook made a notable move up the inside of Turkington on the fifth lap to claim 4th place convincingly.
Just two laps later, Rowbottom was on the other end of an incident when he got tangled up with Team HARD’s Aron Taylor-Smith.
The Northern Irishman locked his outside front wheel on his Cupra and nudged Rowbottom’s Civic off the circuit bringing out the safety car on Lap 6.
The race lap count was extended from 15 to 18 after this safety car period.
Once Rowbottom’s stricken car was removed from the infield, the pack went racing again at the start of Lap 9, led away by yesterday’s pole sitter Aiden Moffat yet again.
Moffat ran wide at Turn 1, but Hill was caught off-guard and wasn’t able to capitalise the moment.
The Ford Focus ST continued to chase the leading Infiniti for the remainder of the race as Moffat seemed to have an answer for everything Hill tried to pull.
Running onto Lap 14, Chris Smiley sent a move up the inside of Adam Morgan’s BMW, claiming seventh place on the road for the Hyundai driver.
By the penultimate lap, it looked as if Hill had settled for second and was keen to finish the race and claim his points for the championship.
On the final lap of the race at the final hairpin, he sent a move down the inside of Aiden Moffat that had them both nose-to-tail.
Moffat would go onto take his fourth BTCC win.
Hill passed the checkered flag in second and Senna Proctor rounded off the podium places.
Colin Turkington came fourth ahead of Josh Cook and Ash Sutton.
In seventh place was Chris Smiley who was ahead of Adam Morgan in eighth and Dan Lloyd in ninth.
Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden topped off the upper order in 10th.
Jade Edwards suffered a right tyre puncture which sent her spinning onto the infield on the penultimate lap, but she avoided contact with any driver or competitor.
She went back out after a pitstop to complete the race in last place.
| Position | Driver | Team |
| 1 | Aiden Moffat |
Laser Tools Racing
|
| 2 | Jake Hill |
MB Motorsport (C)
|
| 3 | Senna Proctor | BTC Racing |
| 4 | Colin Turkington | Team BMW (C) |
| 5 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing |
| 6 | Ash Sutton |
Laser Tools Racing
|
| 7 | Chris Smiley |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars
|
| 8 | Adam Morgan |
Ciceley Motorsport
|
| 9 | Dan Lloyd |
Power Maxed Racing
|
| 10 | Gordon Shedden | Team Dynamics |
| 11 | Tom Chilton |
Ciceley Motorsport
|
| 12 | Tom Ingram |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars
|
| 13 | Stephen Jelley | Team BMW (C) |
| 14 | Árón Taylor-Smith | Team HARD |
| 15 | Carl Boardley |
Laser Tools Racing
|
| 16 | Sam Osborne |
Motorbase Performance (C)
|
| 17 | Jason Plato |
Power Maxed Racing
|
| 18 | Jack Goff | Team HARD |
| 19 | Rory Butcher |
Toyota GAZOO Racing UK (C)
|
| 20 | Tom Oliphant | Team BMW (C) |
| 21 | Sam Smelt |
Toyota GAZOO Racing UK (C)
|
| 22 | Jack Mitchell | Team HARD |
| 23 | Jack Butel |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars
|
| 24 | Andy Neate |
Motorbase Performance (C)
|
| 25 | Nicolas Hamilton | Team HARD |
| 26 | Nick Halstead |
EXCELR8 Trade Price Cars
|
| 27 | Jade Edwards | BTC Racing |
| 28 (DNF) | Daniel Rowbottom | Team Dynamics |
| 29 (DNF) | Ollie Jackson |
MB Motorsport (C)
|
