Jack Goff took command of the opening race of the 2018 British Touring Car Championship season as he fought off the advances of Colin Turkington.
Goff lead the field in to the first corner while second-place starter Sam Tordoff had no traction on the start, spinning his wheels off of the grid.
The opening lap proved to be a clear one, but it wouldn’t be too long before the safety car was deployed as Tordoff, Matt Simpson and Matt Neal got together through Clearways. Simpson and Tordoff spun off the track and while he was lucky to get through the incident he ended up in the gravel trap at Clark Curve and out of the race with broken steering.
With the stricken cars recovered the race resumed, Rob Austin would be the next victim to go out of the race when contact with Tom Oliphant’s Mercedes resulted in a broken suspension, leaving the last race winner of 2017 to crab back to the pitlane.
Dan Cammish, Tom Chilton and James Cole started to struggle with pace as the race wore on; Andrew Jordan was now up in to third place after passing Cammish in to Paddock Hill bend.
Jordan would do his best to close in on the top two but as the laps counted down the task was too much and would have to settle for the final podium spot.
Tom Ingram secured fourth place after a brilliant move around the outside of Chilton at Druids, who would finish fifth place on his return to BTCC.
Adam Morgan finished in sixth place ahead of a storming drive by reigning champion Ash Sutton, who after starting eighteenth on the grid made it up to seventh place as he weaved through the field.
Cammish ended his first BTCC race in eighth place ahead of Chris Smaley and James Cole, who had one of his best BTCC performances of his career so far.
