Oulton Park BTCC: Colin Turkington leads BMW 1-2 in race one

The poleman held the lead at the start, with his WSR team-mate Rob Collard slotting into second from row two.

The BMW duo ran together over the opening laps on the International circuit, with Jason Plato's Triple Eight MG gradually falling away.

As the race developed, Turkington's consistency - he was the only man able to lap in the 1m43s for most of the race - took him away from Collard. The 2009 champion thus crossed the line 2.7 seconds clear.

Behind Collard and Plato, Gordon Shedden held off a late charge by Rob Austin's Audi A4 to secure fourth.

A fast-starting Austin had challenged Shedden at Cascades on the opening lap, but lost ground and had to fend off the MG of Sam Tordoff. Austin finally started coming back at Shedden in the closing stages, but ran out of time.

Tordoff took sixth, ahead of the Motorbase Ford Focus of Mat Jackson.

Some way further back, Nick Foster made it three rear-wheel-drive BMWs in the top eight after holding a gaggle of cars behind him for much of the encounter.

At one stage the group contained 10 cars, but the only change of position came when Matt Neal managed to dive past Alain Menu into Lodge on the final lap to secure 13th.

Reigning champion Andrew Jordan, carrying 45kg of success ballast, struggled. He fell from 13th to 15th on the opening lap and failed to make progress in the pack behind Foster.

Results - 12 laps:

Pos Driver               Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1. Colin Turkington     WSR BMW               20m49.803     
 2. Rob Collard          WSR BMW               +2.692s   
 3. Jason Plato          MG                    +5.429s   
 4. Gordon Shedden       Honda                 +7.628s   
 5. Rob Austin           RAR Audi              +8.357s   
 6. Sam Tordoff          MG                    +12.275s  
 7. Mat Jackson          Motorbase Ford        +13.378s  
 8. Nick Foster          WSR BMW               +18.194s  
 9. Tom Ingram           Speedworks Toyota     +19.471s  
10. Marc Hynes           MG                    +19.810s  
11. Fabrizio Giovanardi  Motorbase Ford        +20.319s  
12. Aron Smith           BMR VW                +20.743s  
13. Matt Neal            Honda                 +21.255s  
14. Alain Menu           BMR VW                +21.824s  
15. Andrew Jordan        Eurotech Honda        +22.631s  
16. Jack Goff            BMR Vauxhall          +23.732s  
17. Dave Newsham         AmD Ford              +24.086s  
18. Adam Morgan          Ciceley Mercedes      +27.390s  
19. James Cole           UA Toyota             +29.123s  
20. Jack Clarke          Motorbase Ford        +30.230s  
21. Glynn Geddie         UA Toyota             +36.254s  
22. Lea Wood             Houseman Toyota       +39.460s  
23. Warren Scott         BMR Vauxhall          +46.718s  
24. Hunter Abbott        RAR Audi              +46.942s  
25. Robb Holland         Rotek Audi            +1m00.766s
26. Simon Belcher        Handy Toyota          +1m08.670s
27. Daniel Welch         Welch Proton          +1m11.429s
         
Retirements: 
  
    Martin Depper        Eurotech Honda       11 laps
    Ollie Jackson        Welch Proton          2 laps
    Aiden Moffat         Moffat Chevrolet      1 lap
    Chris Stockton       BTC Chevrolet         1 lap