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BTCC Oulton Park: Matt Simpson scores strong first BTCC victory

Honda Civic driver Matt Simpson took his maiden British Touring Car Championship victory by leading from lights-to-flag in the opening race of the weekend at Oulton Park

Simpson controlled the start to reach Old Hall corner first, while Tom Chilton leapfrogged team-mate Sam Tordoff in his Motorbase Ford Focus to reach second place at the first turn.

The leader was able to forge a small gap to those battling behind and maintained the gap to the end of 15 laps.

Simpson said: "I knew if I could reach Knickerbrook on the opening lap still in the lead, then I would be in a good position to capitalise from there.

"I could see that Chilton behind me was having to defend, and I hoped he could hold the rest of them back, which he did."

There was smoke coming from the left-front wheel of Simpson's car, but it did not affect his pace.

However, he did have some concerns during the closing stages that allowed Chilton to gain ground.

"The brakes were going soft," said Simpson.

"I was just being careful with them because I had done so much hard work I didn't want to ruin it with a lock-up.

"But it was all under control."

Chilton defended from Tordoff initially, and was then forced to look to his mirrors as the charging Andrew Jordan moved into a podium position at Old Hall on lap eight in his BMW.

Jordan was left slightly frustrated that he hadn't made more progress from his fourth spot on the grid.

"I don't know what happened at the start - I think I might have had too much temperature in the rear tyres because it just bogged down," said Jordan.

"Once I got back up to Tom, he was fast enough in the right places to block me.

"I got alongside him once, but just couldn't make it stick.

"There was more pace in the car, so I am looking forward to race two now."

Behind fourth-placed Tordoff, Matt Neal rounded out the top five carrying 33kg of success ballast in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R, ahead of Colin Turkington's WSR BMW, which had progressed from ninth on the grid to take sixth.

Championship leader Adam Morgan could only manage 18th in his Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which was carrying 75kg of success ballast.

Championship rivals Josh Cook's Power Maxed Vauxhall Astra and Tom Ingram (Speedworks Toyota Avensis) were similarly hampered by extra weight and were 17th and 15th respectively.

Result - 15 laps

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Matt Simpson Eurotech Racing Honda 22m00.318s
2 Tom Chilton Motorbase Ford 0.265s
3 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 0.630s
4 Sam Tordoff Motorbase Ford 1.630s
5 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 2.828s
6 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 3.165s
7 James Cole Motorbase Ford 5.127s
8 Jack Goff Eurotech Racing Honda 6.587s
9 Rob Collard WSR BMW 7.125s
10 Rob Austin HMS Racing Alfa Romeo 7.485s
11 Brett Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 16.644s
12 Chris Smiley BTC Norlin Honda 16.831s
13 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 17.035s
14 Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 17.375s
15 Tom Ingram Speedworks Toyota 17.423s
16 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 17.545s
17 Josh Cook Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 18.138s
18 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 18.884s
19 Mike Bushell Team Hard Volkswagen 19.618s
20 Tom Oliphant Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 20.197s
21 Ash Sutton Team BMR Subaru 20.554s
22 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 20.633s
23 Jake Hill Team Hard Volkswagen 22.934s
24 Tom Boardman AmD Tuning MG 27.475s
25 Daniel Lloyd BTC Norlin Honda 27.937s
26 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 28.173s
27 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning MG 28.342s
28 Senna Proctor Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 28.777s
29 Michael Caine Team Hard Volkswagen 32.235s
30 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 32.779s
31 Sam Smelt AmD Tuning Audi 33.643s
- Josh Price Team BMR Subaru Retirement


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