Andrew Jordan led the reverse grid British Touring Car Championship race at Rockingham from start to finish, taking advantage of a late-race safety car to relieve pressure from Adam Morgan behind to secure victory.
Jordan and Morgan spent the opening exchanges battling wheel to wheel for the lead, with Morgan attempting to pass down the inside of Gracelands on two consecutive laps, without success.
Behind the pair, the chasing pack got off to a chaotic start. Aron Taylor-Smith took a trip through the gravel trap on the outside of Tarzan, immediately followed by a collision between Rory Butcher and Will Burns down the School Straight.
Burns was turned into the path of Ant Whorton-Eales, causing extensive damage to the front-right corner of the AmD Tuning Audi, and leaving the back straight littered with debris.
From there the battle at the front calmed down for the middle phase of the race. The action came from further behind, with Stephen Jelley forced to retire after Josh Cook torpedoed the left-rear of his Ford Focus with an overzealous dive at the Deene hairpin.
The complexion of the race changed near the end when a safety car was deployed, following a collision between Jack Goff and Rob Collard while fighting over third place. Collard had not long passed Jason Plato for fourth, and was side-by-side with Goff exiting the Tarzan hairpin.
Collard attempted to squeeze Goff to the inside of the track, but collided with the front of Goff’s Honda Civic and was pitched into an armco barrier, sliding down the road and coming to rest in the Brook chicane gravel trap.
Jordan pulled off a massive jump on Morgan behind at the restart, giving him a comfortable gap of over a second before even reaching the Deene hairpin for the penultimate time.
Having witnessed Collard and Goff collide ahead of him, Plato inherited third position, ahead of Goff who survived unharmed following his run-in with Collard.
Ash Sutton recovered from a poor start to pick his way up to fifth, who crucially found his way past title rival Colin Turkington moments before the late safety car was deployed.
Senna Proctor snatched seventh away from Tom Ingram on the penultimate lap with a daring move around the outside of the Tarzan hairpin, giving him the inside line to pass Ingram at the Brook chicane.
The top ten was completed by BTC Norlin pairing Chris Smiley and Dave Newsham, the latter of which had put in a very strong drive to climb into the points from 23rd on the grid.
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Standings after Rockingham
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