Colin Turkington cruised to victory in the first British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Knockhill in a dominant performance. While the four-time champion and his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport took the chequered flag by over eight seconds, the championship fight hotted up once more thanks to a rare non-finish for series leader Tom Ingram . Poleman Turkington and the rest of the top three on the grid opted for the soft Goodyear tyre for this race, and the Northern Irishman converted his starting position into the lead, but front-row partner Aron Taylor-Smith made a terrific getaway in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra and lost very little to the rear-wheel-drive BMW.
With fourth-on-the-grid Dan Rowbottom choosing to get the medium option tyre out of the way in this race, he lost out to Josh Cook at the start, with the West Countryman chasing third-placed Adam Morgan in the sister WSR BMW to Turkington’s. While Turkington set the fastest lap and extended his advantage at the front, Morgan closed in on Taylor-Smith, with Cook’s Speedworks Motorsport-run LKQ Toyota Corolla GR Sport homing in on the duo in front. Taylor-Smith held on firmly until three-quarters distance, when Morgan got a cutback out of the slow McIntyre’s right-hander and shouldered his way inside at the Butcher’s kink.
Contact between the BMW and the Vauxhall allowed a chink of light for Cook, who forced his way past Taylor-Smith and into third place at the chicane. Cook wasn’.