Tom Oliphant secures Brands Hatch opener
Tom Oliphant made the most of a fine start to the opening race at Brands Hatch to secure his second career win in the BTCC.
The WSR driver had qualified in fourth place on the grid for the opening race but made the best getaway when the lights went out to vault up into the lead by the time the field got to turn two – helped by pole man Dan Rowbottom being slow away.
Once ahead, Oliphant built a handy lead out front with Aiden Moffat having managed to get up into second spot and holding up the pack behind.
That pack was headed by Gordon Shedden and when the Honda driver got ahead of Moffat at Druids on lap five, he set off after the BMW ahead, gradually eating into Oliphant’s advantage as the laps wore down.
It looked like there wouldn’t be enough laps for the trip champion but as the pair came up behind Rick Parfitt’s delayed Hyundai on the final lap, Shedden was able to close in and Oliphant got slightly out of shape exiting the final corner. However, he had enough in hand to stay out front and crossed the line just under two-tenths of a second behind as Oliphant wrapped up the win.
Third would go to Rowbottom after a fine recovery from his wretched start, which saw him slip all the way back down to seventh.
Showing the pace of the Civic Type R, Rowbottom fought his way forwards and a number of impressive moves at Druids were key to him making it onto the podium in third, with Jake Hill holding off the challenge of Ash Sutton for fourth.
That pair had been bottled up behind Moffat but when Hill opened the door at Clearways on lap twelve it allowed a train of cars to pass the Scot, with Tom Ingram and Chris Smiley also getting ahead.
The trip would round out the top eight with Josh Cook and Jack Goff rounding out the top ten, with Stephen Jelley ahead of the pair on the road but classified in 15th thanks to a time penalty for a infringement at the start.
Further down the order however, fellow BMW driver Colin Turkington endured a race to forget as he struggled to make his way forwards after a tough qualifying session and then dropped down outside the top 20 after a clash with Sam Osborne’s Focus at Clearways.
He would end up back in 21st at the finish, meaning Sutton and Goff are now the only drivers to have scored points in every race this season.
