Lance Gauld took advantage of the changeable to dominate the Dunlop GT and Production Championship race at Croft as pole sitters Colin Wilmott and Jack Wright retired due to a mechanical issue.
Driving the Porsche Cayman, a class two production car, Gauld produced a tactical masterpiece to select the correct set of tyres as the rain began to fall onto the circuit.
The speed and dominance of Gauld was so strong that he managed to lap the entire field and was lapping at over six seconds faster than his nearest rivals.
Wilmott and Wright in the Porsche 997 dominated the earlier stages of the race but a mechanical issue ended their hopes of victory as the rain began to fall harder.
Mike Moss and Kevin Clarke finished in second place in the BMW E46 M3 passing the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 driven by Chris Murphy and Jonny Cocker with only two minutes to go.
Moss and Clarke’s drive was even more impressive considering they started from the back of the grid and worked their way through the field.
Murphy and Cocker led the race briefly but could not hold back the pace of the Porsche Cayman and eventually the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 muscled through.
The safety car came out on lap 17 due to debris on the track but it made very little impact on the race.
There were a number of casualties throughout this tricky race, Jonny MacGregor driving the Taranis suffered a spin and retired early on in the race and Andy Robinson in the Ford Falcon 5000 retired with damage to his car after being involved in a spin.
The race was tricky for all the drivers with many spins and incidents that kept the teams on their toes, many teams had to decide on whether to start on dry or wet tyres. Gauld handled the mixed conditions perfectly to cruise to a fine victory.
The second race will start later on with the teams aware that with the unpredictability of Croft anything can happen.
