Croft BTCC: WSR BMW's Andy Priaulx takes first win of comeback

Poleman Tordoff led the early stages after keeping Priaulx at bay at the start, while the third BMW 125i M Sport of Rob Collard assumed third having jumped Gordon Shedden off the line.

Tordoff immediately pulled a gap that grew as large as 1.4 seconds, but Priaulx started to reel him in and took the lead at Tower on lap six following a mistake from his team-mate at the chicane.

Collard, running on the soft tyre, briefly made it three cars almost line astern for the lead but could not keep with his team-mates as his tyres faded, leaving Priaulx to manage Tordoff's pressure to the end.

Shedden claimed a lonely fourth behind Collard, whose rear-wheel drive BMW proved far kinder than the other runners on the soft-compound Dunlops.

Colin Turkington ran fifth until the final lap, having repassed Rob Austin's Audi in the early stages, when he was swallowed up as he suffered a boost pressure problem.

That allowed Matt Neal to claim fifth in the second Honda Civic Type-R, while Andrew Jordan rose from 10th on the grid to clinch sixth in the lead MG.

Turkington tapped Tom Ingram's Toyota Avensis at the final corner as he held on to seventh, with the Speedworks Motorsport man having to settle for eighth.

Adam Morgan and Jack Goff completed the top 10, the latter another to struggle as his Triple Eight MG's soft tyres went off.

Tordoff will start race two from pole having set the fastest lap of the race, with Priaulx alongside and Jason Plato heading row two.

The erstwhile championship leader opted not to start from 12th on the grid, instead pitting and resuming in clear air to gain a better starting position for the second encounter, when the grid is set by fastest race one laps.

He will start with Shedden alongside on the second row.

RESULTS - 15 LAPS:

RACE TWO STARTING GRID: