Knockhill BTCC: Rob Collard battles to win for WSR BMW

It was another WSR BMW 125i M Sport that led into Duffus Dip for the first time as Andy Priaulx held onto his pole advantage, while the third BMW of Sam Tordoff fluffed its lines from second on the grid and fell to third behind Mat Jackson.

The Motorbase Ford Focus man needed little time to get to the front, passing Priaulx into the hairpin at the end of the first lap and then edged out a near-three-second lead after half a dozen laps.

As he made good his escape Collard, who surprisingly had made no progress from fourth on the grid at the start but nipped ahead of Tordoff later on in the opening lap, was harrying Priaulx for second.

A brief safety-car period bunched the leaders up but when it ended a lap later, Jackson pushed his lead back up above a second - though the rear-wheel drive BMWs came back at him once their soft tyres were back up to temperature.

Jackson defended gamely, keeping Priaulx at bay without too much difficulty, but the pressure turned into contact when Priaulx tried to get around the outside of the Ford exiting the hairpin at three-quarters' distance.

Priaulx went onto the grass briefly, allowing Collard into second - and a lap later he cut underneath Jackson exiting the same corner and took the lead into Duffus Dip.

He retained his advantage to the flag, finishing 1.7s clear of Jackson who expertly fought off Priaulx to mark Motorbase's second meeting of the season with a fine second - and claimed pole for race two with the race's fastest lap.

Behind the podium trio Tordoff recovered to fourth, flying in the final stages after losing ground early on while those on soft tyres swarmed all over his medium-shod BMW.

He passed the Honda of Matt Neal, Rob Austin's Audi and Gordon Shedden in the second Honda in quick succession to vault from seventh to fourth in the space of two laps, and pulled well clear of that battle by the race's end.

Home hero Shedden eventually triumphed in the fight for fifth, keeping a charging Austin at bay throughout.

By backing up Austin, Shedden helped team-mate Neal jump the Audi A4 for sixth on the final lap.

Andrew Jordan's MG, Adam Morgan's Ciceley Mercedes and the lead Team BMR Volkswagen CC of Colin Turkington completed the top 10.

Jason Plato opted to start the race from the back of the grid, having backed off on the formation lap.

He cruised round on the opening lap, and again immediately after the safety car, and ultimately set the ninth-best time to give him some hope of points in races two and three.

RESULTS - 25 LAPS:

RACE TWO STARTING GRID:

Set by race one fastest laps