Adam Morgan led home Dan Rowbottom for an emotional Plato Racing 1-2 in the first British Touring Car Championship race of the day at a soggy Knockhill.
As qualifying race winner, Morgan started his Mercedes A35 Saloon from pole position, with Rowbottom third on the grid behind the front-row-sitting Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Gordon Shedden.
Local hero Shedden got his Speedworks Motorsport-run Laser Tools machine away in second place, but had nothing for Morgan, who was nearly two seconds clear after just two laps.
Shedden didn’t have much for Rowbottom either, and the bearded Midlander cleared the Toyota by running around the outside of the hairpin at the end of the third lap, and then completing the move on the outside of Duffus Dip.
Rowbottom began to eat into Morgan’s advantage, but not significantly so, and the amiable Lancastrian had begun to inch away again when the safety car was called on the 18th of the scheduled 24 laps.
Lewis Gilbert, making good progress on his second BTCC weekend in a West Surrey Racing BMW, had already had a contretemps with Josh Cook, hauling his Speedworks Toyota from the back of the grid following his qualifying race shunt, when the two made contact on the entry to Clark.
The Scot was stranded in the gravel, meaning a recovery that allowed time for five more laps of racing once the course was clear.
Morgan was never under threat once racing resumed, and similarly Rowbottom faced no threat from Shedden as the Plato team broke its full-points-on-Sunday victory duck in resounding fashion, on just its sixth race weekend.
“To be here on the top step with my team-mate is a day the whole team will remember for a very long time,” said Morgan.
“It’s been very hard work to get the car to a point where it’s good in wet and dry, and it was perfect in the race.
“It was a very long race – it looked calculated, but underneath it was panic all the way!”
Championship leader Ash Sutton, who had started his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium from 11th on the grid, had sliced through the field and was hauling in Shedden – setting the fastest lap as he did so – when the safety car appeared.
But Shedden, the BTCC’s master of defence, would not be denied and the veteran ended up third. His defence also allowed Tom Ingram to have a crack at Sutton, and the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback had an overlap on the Focus as they crossed the finish line, with Sutton narrowly getting the verdict for fourth and extending his points margin over Ingram to 61.
Behind Ingram, it was Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Ricky Collard who claimed sixth, while the Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon of Dexter Patterson made good progress after the safety car to pass Dan Cammish’s Alliance Ford for seventh on the final lap.
A 10-second penalty for a false start dumped Cammish to 18th, the safety car bunching up the field and magnifying the effect.
That allowed Mikey Doble and Aiden Moffat (from the back of the grid) to complete a PMR Audi 7-8-9, while Sam Osborne’s Alliance Ford was 10th.
Charles Rainford ran fifth early on in his WSR BMW 330i M Sport but was forced into the pits by the officials due to loose rear bodywork – possibly a result of contact from Sutton – before resuming, while team-mate Daryl De Leon also fell down the order.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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