How the BTCC's craziest race was won

There was unbounded joy on the podium for the second British Touring Car Championship race of the season at Brands Hatch. All three of the men who scaled the rostrum were doing so for the first time after a truly bonkers 27 laps.

They had been the brave ones, the guys with nothing to lose. The wet-but-drying circuit played perfectly into the hands of those who wanted to gamble.

Eventual winner Senna Proctor started 27th on the grid in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra. Second place finisher Jake Hill begun the event in 25th in his Team Hard Volkswagen CC, while Ollie Jackson - who completed the podium - had started the race in 12th position.

They all knew it was a risk to opt for slick tyres, but one that paid the ultimate reward, and just 11 of the 32 starters went for dry tyres.

Proctor's engineer Rob Peacey steered the tyre decision.

"I started on the 14th row of the grid and it was definitely pretty hard from back there," Proctor explained. "I went out and there were a few drying patches. I had watched the Renault Clio Cup race and the race before that and there had been quite a bit of spray, but when we went out there was much less so I could see that it was drying quite rapidly.

"I said over the radio that there were a couple of drying patches and my engineer said 'the slicks are going on, it is non-negotiable'. That was it: he made my decision for me. I questioned it, but by the time the red lights went out, I thought 'well, we are here now, let's just do it'."

Jackson, who was on the softer option Dunlops, was the first to shine and his starring role in the opening moments did a huge favour for the others following. Despite the treacherous conditions, he balanced his Audi S3 perfectly and fended off a huge queue of cars - including some on the then more-favourable wet tyres - to cling to 14th position over the opening tour.

He had been directly in front of Rory Butcher on the grid, and the AmD Tuning MG racer had also opted for the softer slick tyres. But a set-up gamble from AmD didn't quite work and he was unable to grab the opportunity that was presented.

Progress was then interrupted by a safety car as Stephen Jelley had spun his Team Parker Racing BMW 125i M Sport at Clearways at the end of the opening lap.

That caution period was a crucial factor. While it helped the drivers on wet tyres to cool their rubber, it also gave those on the slick tyres time to generate heat in their Dunlops while the pressure was off. And it also meant that three racing laps would be added to the scheduled 24, giving the dry-tyred runners more time to reach the top.

While the leaders didn't necessarily lose pace, they weren't going any faster despite the drier asphalt

Proctor, by this stage, had already had a wobble at Clearways and that dropped him to 26th and sixth of those on the dry tyres as the race reached its halfway stage. At that point, he thought the game was up.

"It felt like the first 10 laps, I was hanging on, and that felt like quite a long time in a 27-lap race," he said. "It was like driving on ice. I passed a couple of cars and did the tough stuff early on and then unfortunately I slid wide at the last corner and undid all my good work.

"Moffat and Hill gapped me on the slicks and I thought that was my opportunity over. I thought that if anyone was going to win the race it was going to be one of those two. They had made the break, but I kept my head and waited for the tyres to come to me.

"Once the transition happened and the slicks were quicker than the wets by quite a considerable amount - we just kept taking time out of the leaders. I wasn't getting much information over the radio because I had told them to be quiet because I needed to concentrate."

There were three decisive moments that helped Proctor on his way to victory. One came on lap 17 when Jackson and Moffat, leading the charge on the slicks, came across Rob Collard's BMW on its worn out wets.

The three of them went into Surtees side-by-side with Moffat in the inside and Jackson on the outside. There was contact and Collard spun across the bows of Jackson, which caused the AmD man to check up. That allowed the opportunistic Hill (on the harder prime tyres) ahead and into 15th to chase Moffat.

The leaders on their wet tyres, Tom Ingram (Speedworks Toyota) and Jack Goff (Eurotech Honda), lapped at around 55s throughout the event. While they didn't necessarily lose pace, they weren't going any faster despite the drier asphalt.

With eight laps to go, the train of slick-tyred cars had climbed into the top 10. Moffat got caught out going into Clearways and slewed sideways, allowing Hill and Proctor to assume the charge. Proctor managed to overhaul Hill (who was struggling with a broken radio and no communication with the pits) a lap later, but Moffat wasn't out of the picture. He grabbed his chance just as Proctor had reached the rear bumper of leader Goff.

On lap 22, it came to a head: Proctor got inside Goff coming out of Paddock Hill Bend and took the lead, but he only had it for a few seconds as Moffat jumped them both up the inside a few hundred yards later at Druids.

Even then, the action wasn't done. Proctor got underneath Moffat coming out of Druids on the penultimate lap and the pair made the slightest of touches. Moffat fired hard into the bank, but remarkably the car held together and he came home in fifth spot.

Lap chart

How Proctor made it to the front

The joy was Proctor's as he took Vauxhall's first win in the BTCC since 2012 and a maiden triumph for himself and the Power Maxed Racing team. It was a bold tactic, a brave gamble, and the biggest of rewards was his.

Not that the Astra driver knew it straight away.

"I was a bit lost with where I was," Proctor said. "One second I could see I was eighth on my pitboard, then I was up to second and then it said third.

"I knew I was in front of Aiden, then I saw a Team Dynamics car in front of me and I wondered if he was in the lead.

"I didn't get confirmation that I had won the race until I had got over the line. It took them until Clearways to tell me on the radio, but I still wasn't sure. When I got to parc ferme, there was no one else there so I thought 'it must be me!'

"That was one crazy race."