Oulton Park BTCC: Simpson converts pole to maiden win

Simpson (Simpson Racing Honda) controlled the start to reach Old Hall corner first, while Tom Chilton leapfrogged teammate Sam Tordoff in the Motorbase Ford to reach second place at the first turn.

Simpson was able to forge a small gap to those battling behind and maintained the gap to the end of 15 laps.

“I knew if I could reach Knickerbrook on the opening lap still in the lead, then I would be in a good position to capitalise from there," he said.

“I could see that Chilton behind me was having to defend, and I hoped he could hold the rest of them back, which he did.”

There was smoke coming from the left-front wheel of Simpson’s car, but it did not affect his pace. However, he did have some concerns over the closing stages which allowed Chilton to gain ground.

“The brakes were going soft,” said Simpson. “I was just being careful with them because I had done so much hard work I didn’t want to ruin it with a lock up. But it was all under control.”

Chilton defended from Tordoff initially, and was then forced to look to his mirrors as the charging Andrew Jordan as the WSR BMW racer moved into a podium position at Old Hall on lap eight.

Behind fourth-placed Tordoff, the top six was completed Matt Neal, carrying 33kg of success ballast in his Team Dynamics Honda and Colin Turkington’s WSR BMW, which had progressed from ninth on the grid.

Championship leader Adam Morgan could only manage 18 spot in his Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes, which was carrying 75kg of ballast.

Championship rivals Josh Cook (Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra) and Tom Ingram (Speedworks Toyota Avensis) were similarly hampered by extra weight and were 17th and 15th respectively.