Thruxton race 1: First win for Dahlgren

The Renault-powered Fortec driver made a great start from third on the grid to tail pole-sitter Watts (Hitech) into the first corner, although his attempts to challenge the Briton for the lead were soon curtailed when third-place man van der Merwe (Carlin) put him under pressure and eventually passed him.

Dahlgren forced his way back past the championship leader on lap four, shortly before the appearance of the Safety Car, which was brought out to clear a number of vehicles that had crashed at various points of the circuit. The casualties included Nelson Piquet Jr, who crashed out of 10th place when swerving to avoid a spinning car ahead of him.

The race restarted on lap nine, and although Watts controlled the restart well, Dahlgren was able to slip pass for the lead at the chicane, although he needed to use some of the grass to do so. Watts then came under pressure from van der Merwe, who eventually nudged the Hitech star off the track heading into the chicane. Watts was able to recover to finish a disappointed sixth.

Jamie Green (Carlin) finished third after a race-long fight with Eric Salignon (Hitech). The Frenchman had actually passed Green early in the race, but lost out to the Briton, and Fairuz Fauzy, on the very last lap, demoting him to fifth.

Steven Kane (T-sport) finished first in the Scholarship class (and eighth overall) after being pressured by the clearly faster Ernesto Viso (P1 Motorsport) for much of the race. Class pole-sitter Viso's race went wrong before it even started, when his team despatched him to the grid late, forcing him to start from the very back.

Robert Dahlgren Fortec
Alan van der Merwe Carlin
Jamie Green Carlin
Fairuz Fauzy Promatecme
Eric Salignon Hitech
Danny Watts Hitech
Ronnie Bremer Carlin
Steven Kane T-Sport
Ernesto Viso P1 Motorsport
Michael Keohane Carlin

Steven Kane T-Sport
Ernesto Viso P1 Motorsport
Karun Chandhok T-Sport