BTCC Croft – Aiden Moffat fends off Jake Hill for brilliant win in race one

Aiden Moffat converted pole to victory in race one at Croft in the British Touring Car Championship. He fended off Jake Hill to take his fourth BTCC win of his career.

Having taken the first pole position of his career on Saturday, he led off the line with second placed qualifier Colin Turkington losing places to Hill and Senna Proctor to sit fourth. His BMW team mate Tom Oliphant had an off on lap one and finished 20th.

On lap three Ollie Jackson came off worst as Chris Smiley dove down the inside of Dan Rowbottom, the pair collided, and with Jackson on the outside of both, he was spun and retired with suspension damage.

The safety car was introduced on lap five as Dan Rowbottom was in the tyre wall as Aron Taylor-Smith clipped the Honda driver and it sent Rowbottom off into the wall.

The race restarted on lap nine and Hill was doing all he can to put the pressure on Moffat.  But the Infiniti driver was defending well and did all he could to hold off the Ford driver.

There weren’t many overtakes at the front with the drivers thinking of the bigger picture and the vital championship points on display. After the first lap the top five didn’t change order once.

Moffat took the chequered flag, with Hill and Proctor rounding off the podium with impressive drives. Turkington took fourth with Josh Cook fifth. He pulled off an incredible double overtake on lap one into the tight right hand hairpin.

Championship leader Ash Sutton was sixth with Smiley seventh, Adam Morgan, Dan Lloyd and Gordon Shedden rounded off the top ten.

Tom Ingram could only manage 12th place in his Hyundai as his title fight takes a hit.

Pos Driver Car Team +/-
1 Aiden Moffat Infiniti Q50 Laser Tools 23:26:297
2 Jake Hill Ford Focus ST MB Motorsport +0.520
3 Senna Proctor Honda Civic Type R BTC Racing +1.888
4 Colin Turkington BMW 330i M Sport Team WSR +2.269
5 Josh Cook Honda Civic Type R BTC Racing +2.877
6 Ash Sutton Infinti Q50 Laser Tools +4.502
7 Chris Smiley Hyundai i30N Excelr8 +5.447
8 Adam Morgan BMW 330i M Sport Ciceley +6.728
9 Dan Lloyd Vauxhall Astra Power Maxed +7.337
10 Gordon Shedden Honda Civic Type R Team Dynamics +8.043
11 Tom Chilton BMW 330i M Sport Ciceley +8.808
12 Tom Ingram Hyundai i30N Excelr8 +9.776
13 Stephen Jelley BMW 330i M Sport Team WSR +10.064
14 Aron Taylor-Smith Cupra Leon Team HARD +11.359
15 Carl Boardley Infiniti Q50 Laser Tools +11.970
16 Sam Osborne Ford Focus ST Motorbase +12.649
17 Jason Plato Vauxhall Astra Power Maxed +13.576
18 Jack Goff Cupra Leon Team HARD +14.276
19 Rory Butcher Toyota Corolla Toyota Gazoo +14.941
20 Tom Oliphant BMW 330i M Sport Team WSR +15.167
21 Sam Smelt Toyota Corolla Toyota Gazoo +16.101
22 Jack Mitchell Cupra Leon Team HARD +17.614
23 Jack Butel Hyundai i30N Excelr8 +23.884
24 Andy Neate Ford Focus ST Motorbase +29.719
25 Nicholas Hamilton Cupra Leon Team HARD +30.118
26 Nick Halstead Hyundai i30N Excelr8 +34.270
27 Jade Edwards Honda Civic Type R BTC Racing +1 Lap
Retirements
DNF Dan Rowbottom Honda Civic Type R Team Dynamics Crash
DNF Ollie Jackson Ford Focus ST MB Motorsport Suspension
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