Mat Jackson won his first Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the season in a shortened opening race at Donington Park.
Jackson moved to the front with a rapid start from third on the grid, leading from the first corner to the finish in a race brought to a halt by a crash between Matt Simpson and Dan Welch late in the 17-lapper, plus a fire for the Subaru Levorg of James Cole.
A dramatic start saw the Triple Eight MGs swamped as Jackson scythed in between the pair to lead at Redgate, pole-sitter Ashley Sutton slipping to fourth spot behind the West Surrey Racing BMW of Rob Collard.
The safety car was swiftly deployed after an incident for Warren Scott‘s Subaru Levorg, Ollie Jackson‘s Audi S3 also venturing off the circuit at Redgate.
Sutton had moved his way by Collard with a bold lunge at Old Hairpin before the intervention, after which Jackson continued to lead from the MG duo.
The Motorbase Performance man was unchallenged from that moment, cruising to his and the Ford team’s first victory of the 2016 season by 1.8s from Triple Eight’s Cook.
Tom Ingram rounded out the podium for Speedworks Motorsport, squeezing by the second MG6 GT of Sutton at Redgate on lap 11 for third place in a move that allowed Collard to follow through at Craner Curves also.
Jack Goff followed suit in another WSR BMW 125i, soon moving by his soft tyre-shod team-mate Collard for fourth on lap 13 before Sutton returned the favour on the latter at Redgate a corner later.
Behind them, Jeff Smith was best of the Honda Civic Type-Rs in seventh place, Aron Smith‘s Team BKR Volkswagen CC next up ahead of Sam Tordoff‘s WSR BMW and Colin Turkington‘s Team BMR Subaru Levorg.
The Halfords Yuasa Racing team struggled in race one, Gordon Shedden finishing 11th place, a spot ahead of team-mate, Matt Neal.
Race two of the day gets underway at 14:27, and you can keep up with all the action right here and via@TheCheckerFlag on Twitter.
