Four-time title winner Ash Sutton held on to defeat Tom Ingram in a thrilling opening race for the British Touring Car Championship season at Donington Park.
Sutton led all the way from the exit of the first corner after executing a perfect switchback move on polesitting team-mate Dan Cammish out of Redgate.
The two Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus STs were both on soft tyres for this race, while 2022 champion Ingram ran third in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback on medium Goodyears.
But as the race moved into its middle stages, Ingram surged onto the tail of Cammish and grabbed second place with a fine move at the Old Hairpin.
Ingram soon homed in on Sutton, and the two were nose to tail when the race was neutralised by a safety car, with Adam Morgan stranded by the circuit with a left-front puncture on his Excelr8 Hyundai.
Cammish also suffered a left-front puncture, but the caution period enabled him to drive into the pits for a new tyre, rejoining at the back of the train in 19th position.
The six-lap sprint to the finish began with Sutton and Ingram comparable on TOCA Turbo Boost ‘push-to-pass’, and the Ford driver made no mistakes to fend off his pursuer.
Ingram feinted to the outside of Redgate on the final lap, and there was a slight nudge on the Craner Curves, but Sutton held on by 0.267 seconds.
“My God, did I have to start nursing that tyre from the first lap onwards…” said Sutton.
“I knew it was always going to be tough, but the fact that I had go into nursing mode from the get-go made it worse.
“I made sure I was saving my power boost to defend from Tom and keep it alive.”
Behind the leading duo, Dan Rowbottom replaced Cammish in the top three for the Alliance Ford team, the bearded Midlander “unable to hold a candle to Tom”.
Apart from Sutton and Cammish, Ronan Pearson was the only driver to opt for the soft tyre in this race, and the Scot was running fourth as the race entered its closing stages.
But things had already gone pear-shaped for the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla man, who was assessed a 10-second penalty for a false start, and the safety car maximised the damage to his finishing position.
Pearson actually lost fourth on the road on the final lap to reigning champion Jake Hill, who on the first lap after the restart had held his nerve to demote the Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Chilton into the Old Hairpin after a three-abreast descent of the Craner Curves that also encompassed Josh Cook’s One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R.
Fourth was a strong fightback for Hill and the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport, and he was followed home by Chilton.
Cook potentially should have been at least in the top five, but earlier in the race had been nerfed off at the chicane by Chilton. This folded his exhaust and cost Cook power, and in the closing laps he came under fierce attack from the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra of Mikey Doble, who got past on the penultimate lap to claim sixth and the Independents win.
After the race, Chilton copped a five-second penalty for the incident with Cook, dropping him behind the West Countryman to seventh in the results and promoting Doble to fifth.
A superb fightback from Cammish over the final six laps hoisted him to eighth, with Aiden Moffat (WSR BMW) and Chris Smiley (Restart Racing Hyundai) completing the top 10.
The WSR BMWs of Charles Rainford and Daryl DeLeon missed out on top 10 positions, Rainford skating off at Coppice and tapping the barrier before rejoining, and DeLeon getting shuffled wide in the midfield train on the final lap.
BTCC Donington Park - Race 1 results
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