With four leading drivers out and another two of them heavily delayed, a surprise order emerged out of the spray, pole sitter Giovanardi coming up to the safety car in the lead but ahead of Chris Stockton, Gavin Smith, Adam Jones, Erkut Kizilirmak, Allison, Richard Marsh, Gordon Shedden and
Mat Jackson in his hastily repaired MSport
BMW.
Smith's third place would be misleading though, the returning Irishman having jumped the start, a drive-through penalty duly coming his way. Worse was to come though when he got the hammer down too early at the restart and was already past Stockton before they crossed the start-finish line as the race resumed. The GR Asia driver would be forced to serve a second penalty.
It took just one more corner for the race to be pitched under safety car conditions again though when Allison got out of shape coming out of Paddock Hill Bend, the SEAT slamming hard into the barrier on the inside of the circuit, the impact heavily damaging the rear of his Toledo and potentially forcing the second Motorbase car out of the final race.
Jones was already up to second though, just nipping past Stockton as they came across the finish line, to pull up behind Giovanardi. It proved to be a crucial move as Stockton proved a worthy mobile chicane as the race resumed, his Lexus holding off Kizilirmak and Marsh, who in turn were backing up the likes of Shedden, Jackson, Mike Jordan and a charging Plato, who was already up to ninth.
It took two laps for Shedden to finally pick his way through the order, passing Stockton on lap 12 as his BTC Racing IS200 slipped back down the order, taking Kizilirmak and Marsh with him.
Nonetheless, Giovanardi and Jones already commanded an impressive lead, the Team AirCool Toledo managing to keep the Vectra honest of the next few laps before dropping away.
