The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car kicked off with an entertaining opening round of the season at Brands Hatch this past weekend.
With the promise of sunshine on Sunday it meant that the masses of fans were treating to some great racing with the BTCC and the support races.

There was plenty of interest for Kent fans with Wrotham’s Motorbase performance running multiple race winner Mat Jackson and 2013 champion Andrew Jordan.

Rochester based Team Hard ran home favourite Jake Hill, alongside rookies Chris Smilley and Michael Epps.

In the support series there was a Mike Bushell in the UK Clio Cup and Dave Wooder from Chatham in the Ginetta Juniors. Ashford based WDE Motorsport were back in the Clio cup with favourite Paul Rivett and also local boy Rory Green. Jamun Racing were also back in the MSA Formula with a competitive looking Jamie Caroline.

Showing just how competitive the BTCC is, there were three different winners in the opening weekend of the weekend. With Tom Ingram taking the win in race one, defending champion Gordon Sheddon race two and Adam Morgan race three.

In race one the two Motorbase were battling to be in the top ten, Jackson looked the most comfortable and came home in seventh place, with Andrew Jordan on his debut for the team in 11^th place.

The Team Hard boys had an interesting first race with Michael Epps and Chris Smiley caught up in an incident at Graham Hill bend that saw them both drop down the field and finish in 20^th and 23^rd respectively.

Jake Hill however, was working his way through from his qualifying position and picking off cars in front of him, as he showed his pace. Bringing home his Avensis in 13^th place and scoring three points for the team.

Race two was superbly entertaining and that definitely was the case for the local based teams and drivers, both good and bad.

Jordan and Jackson worked together to move their way into the top five with Jordan taking fourth ahead of Jackson, after Jackson went on an excursion at Graham Hill bend having caught some oil.Over at Team Hard, Hill was racing one of the best races that he has had for a long time, and was running strongly in 10^th place and having a good battle Sam Tordoff, before a fuel pressure regulator failure caused him to retire.

Epps and Smiley were having their own battles and Epps was particularly impressive and finished just two points outside the points, with Smiley a couple of laps down having had a spin earlier in the race.

The final race was the best of the day for Jordan as he battled for the podium places for much of the race with Jack Goff, before having to settle for his second fourth place finish of the day. Jackson was with him for much of the race before issues meant that he had to come in and change his left rear and finished in 25^th place.

Hill was having a ding dong battle with Tom Ingram for 20^th place, with some of the best defensive driving we have seen for a long time, until he dropped down to finish in 23^rd after we think a bit of a tap from Ingram.

This actually allowed his teammate Epps through who was in his own battle with Ollie Jackson and he finished in 21^st place.

Mike Bushell over in the Clio Cup on his return to the series since winning the title in 2014, finished fourth in race on Saturday before going one better on Sunday taking third in a race that saw the top three almost joined together for most of the race.

In the Ginetta Juniors Dave Wooder took third in race on Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday afternoon he went one better and finished second, in another highly entertaining race from the young drivers of the future.

The opening weekend of the British Touring car weekend didn’t disappoint and it promises to be a fascinating season ahead for everyone involved, and the next race weekend at Donington Park can’t come soon enough.

Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk