Josh Cook claimed victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Croft, inheriting victory after on-the-road victor Tom Ingram received a five-second track limits penalty.

Rain in the hours before the start left drivers facing a challenging decision about their choice of rubber for the start – with some, including both CPRL and Laser Tools Racing cars and Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley, opting to head to the grid on the hard tyre to get it out of the way early in the day.

However, the rain continued falling at the start, prompting all bar Smiley to pit at the end of the formation lap to change to wet tyres.

When the lights went out, Cook got his Toyota away from the line well, whilst NAPA Racing UK duo Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton held station in second and third.

WSR’s Daryl De Leon fell back five places from fourth on the grid halfway around the opening lap. After initially passing Sutton for third into the first corner, Sutton reclaimed the place just before the chicane, and De Leon had to catch a huge slide on the exit of the kink, dropping him back.

In the early part of the race, Cook had the legs on Cammish, who had used up all of his TOCA Turbo Boost by lap 11. However, as the race progressed the wet tyres began to lose their grip in the drizzly conditions, whilst time penalties for track limits exceedances also came into play.

Sutton was the first to make a mistake, sliding off the circuit at Sunny In on lap 12 and dropping behind Ingram.

A lap later, Ingram passed Cammish with ease exiting Hawthorn corner to take second, before quickly making short work of getting by Cook for the lead, forcefully nudging Cook at the hairpin at the end of the lap to take over at the front.

However, by this stage, Ingram (along with four others) had received a five-second penalty for track limits exceedances. With only two laps to run, the Team VERTU driver was unable to extend enough of an advantage, handing a second victory of the season to Cook, who had to withstand a final corner assault from Sutton.

Cook won by just under four tenths of a second from Sutton, whilst Ingram completed the podium, as fourth-placed Cammish had also received a five-second track limits penalty.

Team VERTU’s Ricky Collard finished in fifth, a further ten seconds back, in a quiet race for the Hyundai driver after he got by Power Maxed Racing’s Aiden Moffat for the place on the second lap.

WSR’s Daryl De Leon and Charles Rainford were sixth and seventh respectively, the duo having got by Moffat on lap five when he came together with team-mate Dexter Patterson at the complex.

Whilst Moffat took the chequered flag in eighth, Patterson spun across the track and fell to the back, ultimately finishing down in 19th.

The top ten was completed by CPRL’s Daniel Rowbottom and Power Maxed’s Mikey Doble, the latter racing with a fresh engine in his Audi in an attempt to remedy the problem which saw his car crawl to a standstill in Saturday’s qualifying race.

WSR’s Lewis Gilbert recorded the best finish of his short BTCC career to-date by finishing in 11th, inheriting the Jack Sears’ Trophy win after NAPA’s Lewis Selby fell off the circuit on lap eight having run in tenth early on.

Smiley, the only runner on the slick, hard tyre at the end, was a lap down in 22nd after struggling to get within ten seconds of the fastest times on wet rubber.