Sam Tordoff clinched his first Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship win of the 2016 season in race two at Oulton Park, taking a five-point championship lead in the process.
Tordoff made his move into the first corner of the second 16-lapper of the day in Cheshire, rounding Colin Turkington‘s Subaru Levorg under braking for Old Hall to grab a lead he would never surrender.
The race was quickly under safety car conditions after the opening lap however, Ashley Sutton‘s Triple Eight MG forced to pit with suspension damage, while Aiden Moffat‘s Mercedes A-Class left the road after an incident at Knickerbrook.
Rob Austin was also involved in first lap contact with Jake Hill‘s similar Toyota Avensis at the hairpin, Mat Jackson delayed by the incident also.
Tordoff was unchallenged on the restart, leaving a Team BMR battle briefly for second place. Jason Plato attempted a move around the outside of Turkington at Cascades, but that soon slipped him into the grasp of the Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type-R of Gordon Shedden instead.
The top four stabilised swiftly however, Turkington second ahead of Plato, Shedden and Tom Ingram who rounded out the top five in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis.
The man on the biggest charge of all was Rob Collard, relentlessly carving through the field from 23rd on the grid in the first half of the race.
The WSR BMW made its way up to the battle for sixth between Josh Cook and Matt Neal, contact between the Honda and MG occurring at the hairpin two laps in succession. A great exit from the final corner on lap 10 for Collard moved him clear of Neal’s Honda into Old Hall, the BMW soon all over the damaged rear bumper of Cook for sixth.
The dice ended in tears on lap 12 however, Collard making the move stick at Old Hall but a wide exit across the grass lead to contact with the MG on his return to the tarmac, the BMW spinning out at Cascades with a puncture.
Cook grimly fended off the attack of former championship leader Neal for sixth, Andrew Jordan next up in the queue ahead of Jack Goff‘s BMW and Jackson’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST.
Warren Scott‘s Subaru Levorg made it to the grid for race two after his dramatic fire in the opening race of the day, finishing 18th behind former team-mate Aron Smith who took a scenic route at Cascades on lap one.
