Onslow-Cole wins Thruxton race one

The Vauxhall driver, who started from pole position, lost the lead to the fast-starting Team Halfords Honda of Gordon Shedden on the opening lap, but got his position back when the Scotsman suffered a right-front puncture, which forced him into the pits at half-distance.

Onslow-Cole, who inherited a four-second lead at that stage, backed off during the second half of the race to protect his advantage, but still managed to come home 2.9 seconds clear of Colin Turkington, giving him his second career victory and his first since Snetterton last year.

Turkington made a great start from eighth on the grid in his Team RAC BMW, and took advantage of a failed move on Jason Plato by Fabrizio Giovanardi to pass the Italian for fourth on lap seven.

Shedden's problem and a brilliant round-the-outside move on Plato's SEAT on the run up to the complex for the 13th time, saw him finish ahead of the 2001 champion.

Plato was struggling for acceleration exiting the Club chicane at the end of the lap, and this allowed Giovanardi to get a run on him up to Allard corner three times during the race, but the Englishman defended well to hang on to his place and reduce the Italian's championship lead to 14 points.

Matt Neal (Vauxhall) and Mat Jackson finished fifth and sixth, the BMW Dealer UK driver putting a superb move on Darren Turner at the complex on the penultimate lap to finish ahead of the SEAT driver.

Tom Chilton, Adam Jones, and Mike Jordan - who passed his son Andrew on the finish line after getting a better exit out of the chicane - completed the top ten while Shedden, who had been 20th after having a fresh tyre fitted, recovered to 14th by the flag.

Pos  Driver               Car       Time
 1.  Tom Onslow-Cole      Vauxhall  21:34.274
 2.  Colin Turkington     BMW       +   2.937
 3.  Jason Plato          SEAT      +   3.887
 4.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall  +   4.262
 5.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall  +   4.587
 6.  Mat Jackson          BMW       +   5.729
 7.  Darren Turner        SEAT      +   6.862
 8.  Tom Chilton          Honda     +   7.496
 9.  Adam Jones           SEAT      +   7.812
10.  Mike Jordan          Honda     +   9.426
11.  Andrew Jordan        Honda     +   9.434
12.  Stephen Jelley       BMW       +  13.060
13.  Steven Kane          BMW       +  25.505
14.  Gordon Shedden       Honda     +  35.456
15.  Rob Collard          BMW       +  35.909
16.  Michael Doyle        Honda     +  36.825
17.  Jason Hughes         Honda     +  41.379
18.  Martyn Bell          Vauxhall  +  45.306
19.  Gareth Howell        SEAT      +  48.435
20.  Chris Stockton       SEAT      +  56.871
21.  John George          Honda     +1:02.581
22.  Alan Taylor          Honda     +   1 lap
23.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall  +  2 laps

Retirements:

     Driver               Car        Laps
     Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet  6