Ash Sutton took his first victory of 2020 and Infiniti’s first ever BTCC victory in the first reverse grid race of the year.
After the top twelve drivers were reversed, Sutton started in eighth and worked his way through to the front, taking lead from the Hyundai of Chris Smiley at Coppice on lap 10.
From there Sutton was unchallenged, taking victory by over 2 seconds.
Polesitter Smiley was beaten off the line by Ollie Jackson but did well to hold off the fast starting Stephen Jelley into Redgate.
Smiley then took the lead on lap 7, with Josh Cook, Sutton and Adam Morgan following him through Jackson.
Cook kept the pressure on Smiley until the end of the race finishing just 0.276s behind the Excelr8 Motorsport driver.
By finishing second, Smiley gave Hyundai their first podium in the BTCC.
Morgan and Jackson stayed in fourth and fifth respectively, both finishing within sight of Sutton.
The Toyota Corolla of Tom Ingram found good pace by the end of race finishing just behind Jackson in sixth.
The Team Dynamics Honda’s of Dan Cammish and Matt Neal home in seventh and eighth just ahead of the Team BMW’s of Tom Oliphant and Colin Turkington.
After finishing on the podium in Race 2, Rory Butcher was only able to finish 11th in the Motorbase run Ford Focus ST.
BTC Racing team mates Tom Chilton and Michael Crees finished in 12th and 13th, just 0.112s ahead of Carl Boardley in 14th.
Bobby Thompson completed the points scorers in the GKR TradePriceCars.com run Audi S3.
