Colin Turkington took his first victory of the season in race two at Donington Park, winning by over two seconds from Rory Butcher and team-mate Tom Oliphant. Race one winner Dan Cammish could only finish sixth as he struggled with the 60kg of ballast he was forced to carry due to his earlier success.
As the lights went out Turkington used his rear wheel drive advantage to outdrag Cammish into Redgate and take the lead. The BMW driver then got his head down to build a two second lead by the end of lap three as a train started to form behind Cammish.
On lap four, there was a change for second as Butcher took a tighter line at Coppice to get alongside Cammish on the straight before completing the pass at the chicane.
Cammish then lost two places in as many corners at the end of lap five as Ingram and Oliphant demoted him to fifth.
Further down the field Ash Sutton was making good progress as he moved into the top ten having started 14th.
His progress, and that of the rest of the field, was temporarily halted when the safety car was deployed following a spin into the gravel at Coppice for Nicolas Hamilton. This instantly wiped out Turkington’s three second advantage and closed the pack up.
After two laps the race restarted with seven to go, and Turkington again eased away at the front from Butcher, Ingram and Oliphant.
Sutton’s charge continued with an outstanding out braking manoeuvre as he passed Chilton and Jelley around the outside at the chicane to move into seventh.
He then caught and passed the heavier Hondas of Neal and Cammish on successive laps to sit fifth.
On the penultimate lap Oliphant, who found some late race pace, slipped up the inside of Ingram at Coppice for third and set off in pursuit of Butcher.
At the flag, Turkington took a comfortable win with Butcher just holding off Oliphant for second. Ingram was fourth but less than a tenth clear of the charging Sutton.
Cammish and Neal finished line astern in sixth and seventh with Adam Morgan an impressive eighth in the Carlube TripleR Racing with Mac Tools Mercedes.
Stephen Jelley and Josh Cook rounded out the top ten after a hectic midfield battle.
For the full race classification, please see here.
Race three, the reverse grid race, begins at 17:25 and will be shown live on ITV4. Chris Smiley will start from pole with Turkington 12th on the grid.