The opening race of the season lived up to all the pre-season hype as James Thompson made the perfect return to the BTCC with a win in his first race for SEAT Sport UK. Thompson bided his time after starting third on the grid, before passing Tom Chilton to prevent the 21 year-old from taking the elusive 100th BTCC win for Vauxhall.

There was drama before the race even started, as both Gordon Shedden and Fiona Leggate required a push-start ahead of the green flag lap. It was a throttle cable problem for Shedden, which saw him start the race but later retire. However, a troublesome starter motor prevented Fiona Leggate from taking the start. Dave Pinkney became a further casualty at the start of the race, as his black and fluorescent pink Honda Integra failed to get away from the line.

Indeed, Pinkney’s problems caused the safety car to make an early entry to the race, but not before Tom Chilton had converted pole position to race lead, with Colin Turkington, Gavin Smith and Fabrizio Giovanardi all leapfrogging the SEATs of Jason Plato and James Thompson. The other big mover on the opening lap was defending champion Matt Neal, who found his way up to eighth with little trouble.

With Pinkney’s car safely out of the way, the race started for the second time. Chilton judged the restart well, but came under pressure from the Team RAC MG of Colin Turkington. The other battle to emerge very quickly was between Fabrizio Giovanardi and James Thompson. The pair travelled the length of the Brabham Straight side by side, before the Briton emerged in front. Not for long however, as Giovanardi went back in front at Clearways.

The safety car then made a second trip onto the track when Mark Proctor’s Honda Civic became stranded in the gravel on the Outside of Clearways. At the restart a couple of laps later, Tom Chilton once again handled the pressure from Colin Turkington superbly. There was contact between the two youngsters at Graham Hill Bend. Almost simultaneously, Jason Plato and the Astra Sport Hatch of Gavin Smith came to blows, which ended with Plato retiring to the pits with a damaged rear end.

Fabrizio Giovanardi received a brutal welcome to the BTCC on lap 12, as his Astra Sport Hatch made heavy contact with the barrier after a skirmish with Rob Collard. It meant retirement for Giovanardi on his BTCC debut.

Back at the front, Colin Turkington continued to put Tom Chilton under pressure, attempting a move around the outside at Druids. However, this slowed the MG out of Graham Hill Bend, allowing James Thompson to get a run on him. Turkington held out until Clearways on the following lap, at which point Thompson finally managed to steal away second position. The battle between the pair continued for several laps, but it was Thompson who was able to get the break and chase down race leader Tom Chilton.

Chilton succumbed to pressure from Thompson at Clearways on lap 23, and then found himself defending from both Colin Turkington and Matt Neal. As Thompson took the chequered flag to win for SEAT Sport UK, Chilton managed to hang on for second, with Neal third and Turkington dropping to fourth. Mike Jordan finished in an impressive fifth position on his BTCC debut. Gavin Smith was sixth, Rob Collard seventh, and James Kaye eighth. Jason Hughes and Martyn Bell rounded out the top ten.

Racewinner James Thompson said: “It’s important not to get too involved. It’s the first race of the season and everybody is pretty excitable. I’m very pleased with the result.”

Tom Chilton said, “That’s a good way to start the season. This is still a new car for me. You have to defend around here, so I just tried to stop everybody getting past.”