Ollie Jackson took his first BTCC victory after team mate Rory Butcher caused a red flag mid way through the race.
Jackson made a fantastic start, jumping polesitter Tom Oliphant off the line and was able to keep the Team BMW driver behind throughout the first part of the race.
Oliphant had started to close in on Jackson when Butcher and Matt Neal made contact coming into Becketts which sent Butcher backwards into the barrier before rolling multiple times and finally landing in the middle of the track at the beginning of the Wellington straight.
Fortunately Butcher’s destroyed Ford Focus was avoided by the rest of the field and although he appeared shaken was able to get out of the car on his own volition.
Unsurprisingly, the crash caused a red flag on lap 7 as Butcher’s car was removed and the damaged barrier was checked by the circuit officials.
The race restarted with a shortened distance of 12 laps.
Jackson again made a great start keeping Oliphant behind with Adam Morgan in third.
Oliphant kept within a second of Jackson and took the lead on lap 7 coming into Copse.
However, Oliphant went wide, opening the door for Jackson to take the lead back into Becketts.
Behind the leaders, Ash Sutton, who originally started 26th and 12th on the restart, stormed his way through the field and was third by lap 9.
Sutton appeared to have the pace to win but was unable to get past Oliphant until the last lap and finished just 0.312s behind Jackson.
Oliphant completed the podium ahead of Dan Cammish and Morgan.
Senna Proctor finished in sixth just ahead of Josh Cook in seventh.
Aidan Moffat and Tom Chilton finished eighth and ninth respectively with Colin Turkington completing the top 10.
After losing the championship lead in race 2, Sutton now leads going to Croft in two weeks time.
Neal finished 11th with Bobby Thompson and Chris Smiley in 12th and 13th respectively.
Carl Boardley finished 14th with Jake Hill rounding out the points scorers.
Round 18 Results
1- Ollie Jackson 11:48.038
2 – Ash Sutton +0.312s
3 – Tom Oliphant +0.576s
4 – Dan Cammish +1.130s
5 – Adam Morgan +3.827s
6 – Senna Proctor +3.947s
7 – Josh Cook +4.238s
8 – Aidan Moffat +4.472s
9 – Tom Chilton +4.599s
10 – Colin Turkington +4.911s
11 – Matt Neal +5.453s
12 – Bobby Thompson +6.191s
13 – Chris Smiley +7.178s
14 – Carl Boardley +7.241s
15 – Jake Hill +10.661s
