Jordan takes first victory of 2011

The Eurotech Racing Vauxhall Vectra driver, who has been on the leading pace since pre-season testing, jumped the polesitting Honda Civic of Matt Neal at the start. He was followed by the similar Triple 8 Engineering machine of James Nash.

Despite two safety car periods - the first for a serious crash for Jason Plato at the Craner Curves after Gordon Shedden (Honda Racing) touched Liam Griffin, firing the Ford Focus into the double champion - Jordan held his nerve to defeat Nash by 0.8 seconds.

It was Jordan's first BTCC win in a non-reverse grid race.

"James was hassling me the whole way," said Jordan. "It was nip-and-tuck, but it's really nice."

Neal shadowed the Vectras throughout without challenging, and had to hold off Tom Chilton's Arena Motorsport Ford Focus in the closing stages to secure a podium finish.

Mat Jackson could have been fourth, but outbraked himself at the chicane early on, allowing Chilton to repass him. When Chilton got sideways at the Old Hairpin, Jackson drew alongside, but the pair clashed at McLeans, sending Jackson down to an eventual 10th.

A fast-starting Rob Collard was therefore fifth and top normally aspirated runner. He couldn't hold off the turbo Focuses down the start-finish straight, but the WSR BMW man finished just out of reach of the charging Shedden, who took sixth after starting from the back.

The ever-improving AmD Milltek Racing Volkswagen Golf of Tom Onslow-Cole avoided all the trouble to take a fine seventh, and score the team's first BTCC points, despite pressure from the RML Chevrolet of Alex MacDowall for much of the race.

MacDowall was demoted to ninth on the final lap, as Nash's team-mate Tony Gilham again scored points in his first season in the championship by powering past in the closing moments.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall     26m54.737s
 2.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall       + 0.776s
 3.  Matt Neal        Honda                   + 1.359s
 4.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford              + 2.009s
 5.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW                 + 2.472s
 6.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                   + 3.155s
 7.  Tom Onslow-Cole  AmD Volkswagen          + 8.091s
 8.  Tony Gilham      Triple 8 Vauxhall       + 8.800s
 9.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet               + 8.909s
10.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford          + 9.179s
11.  Andy Neate       Arena Ford             + 10.657s
12.  John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet   + 12.011s
13.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall      + 16.829s
14.  Chris James      ES Chevrolet           + 18.235s
15.  Dave Newsham     Geoff Steel BMW        + 21.041s
16.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota      + 22.233s

Retirements:

     Nick Foster      WSR BMW                  12 laps
     Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT      10 laps
     Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet      9 laps
     Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota            7 laps
     Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford            0 laps
     Rob Austin       Austin Audi               0 laps
     Jason Plato      Chevrolet                 0 laps