Fabrizio Giovanardi has secured his first win of the 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season – and VX Racing’s first win with the new Vectra – after a lights to flag victory in race one at Rockingham.
Giovanardi inherited ‘pole’ position when pole-sitter Darren Turner was left stranded on the grid at the start of the warm-up lap and led for the entire race en route to his third BTCC win, with team-mate Tom Chilton following him home to give the team a fine 1-2 finish.
The Italian made a solid get-away to lead the field around the turn one banking for the first time, with championship leader
Jason Plato slotting into second and Chilton holding third. A good start from
Matt Neal saw him jump into fourth place from
Tom Onslow-Cole and
Mat Jackson, while back in the pack,
Colin Turkington had made a fine start from the back of the field in his Team RAC
BMW to jump up the order.
As expected, the circuit would provide plenty of chances to overtake, with many of the moves coming as the cars dropped off the banking and swept into Deene. On lap two, Jackson dived down the inside of Onslow-Cole into the turn and took fifth, with Eoin Murray in the Quest Racing Alfa Romeo following the SEAT Cupra champion through, tagging Onslow-Cole in the process and dropping the rookie down to tenth.
Murray wouldn’t keep the position for long however, as on the following lap he fell victim to a fine move down the inside from Gordon Shedden, who was making moves up the order from eighth and took sixth. Murray continued to go the wrong way down the order on lap four, when he was taken by Mike Jordan at the same place.
Out front, Giovanardi was extending his lead over Plato – carrying maximum ballast to his championship position – with Chilton pressurising from behind. Neal was still fourth, but under pressure from Jackson – the two touching on the exit of the Brook Esses on lap seven.
