Chilton takes first LPG win

In soaking wet conditions, Chilton starting from pole position in his Arena Motorsport-run Ford Focus, remained in the lead on the run to the first corner and survived two re-starts to take a dominant victory by almost six seconds from Gordon Shedden's Honda.

Chilton's win was the first in the BTCC for a Ford for 10 years.

Rob Collard made a sensational start from fifth on the grid to move his WSR BMW up to second at the start, but he was unable to hold on to the position for long, Shedden passing him at Westfield for second on lap four.

Shedden's team-mate Matt Neal also made it past by the end of the lap, but ran wide at Clearways, allowing both Collard and Tom Onslow-Cole's Arena Ford through.

Onslow-Cole wasted little time in passing Collard himself, and hung on to third until the end to complete a memorable double podium for the Arena squad.

Collard and Neal were next up with Paul O'Neill right behind them in sixth. O'Neill was the architect of a magnificent charge through the second half of the race.

He only made it into the top 10 when David Pinkney spun off into the gravel at Hawthorns on lap eight, and then passed Andrew Jordan, Tom Boardman and the Chevrolets of Jason Plato and Alex MacDowall to seal the spot. His move on Plato, coming from a long way back at Clearways, was the pass of the race.

Plato failed to take seventh from his team-mate on the line by 0.243s, and saw his championship lead reduced to 13 points by Neal.

Boardman finished ninth in his Special Tuning UK SEAT while Motorbase BMW driver Jackson, who had earlier lost time with a trip through the gravel at Paddock, secured the final points position when Jordan brought his Eurotech Vauxhall into the pits with a lap to go.

Pos  Driver            Team             Result
 1.  Tom Chilton       Ford             33m15.656s
 2.  Gordon Shedden    Honda            +   5.783s
 3.  Tom Onslow-Cole   Ford             +   8.935s
 4.  Rob Collard       BMW              +  14.384s
 5.  Matt Neal         Honda            +  15.191s
 6.  Paul O'Neill      Honda            +  17.104s
 7.  Alex MacDowall    Chevrolet        +  19.660s
 8.  Jason Plato       Chevrolet        +  19.903s
 9.  Tom Boardman      SEAT             +  21.862s
10.  Mat Jackson       BMW              +  36.187s
11.  Steven Kane       BMW              +  39.279s
12.  Matthew Hamilton  Honda            +  39.661s
13.  Lea Wood          Honda            +  46.011s
14.  Andy Neate        BMW              +  51.388s
15.  Martin Depper     BMW              +1m45.748s
16.  Andrew Jordan     Vauxhall         +   1  lap
17.  Martin Johnson    Vauxhall         +   2 laps
18.  Arthur Forster    BMW              +   3 laps

Retirements

     David Pinkney     Vauxhall         7 laps
     Shaun Hollamby    Volkswagen       5 laps
     John George       Honda            0 laps
     James Nash        Vauxhall         0 laps