Smiley takes maiden BTCC win in chaotic third race

BTC Norlin Racing's Chris Smiley taken his first ever British Touring Car Championship race victory after winning a chaotic third race of the day at Rockingham.

The Honda Civic Type-R driver started the reverse grid finale from fourth, but took full advantage of a dramatic opening lap to win the race by over three-seconds ahead of championship leader Colin Turkington.

Once the race finally got underway following two aborted starts, light rainfall caused havoc at the opener corner, which led to multiple cars falling off the track at the Deene hairpin, including the then race leader and polesitter Tom Chilton.

Despite immediately jumping into the lead, Smiley came under severe pressure from the MG of Rory Butcher in second, who was also chasing a maiden win in the series.

Smiley successfully managed to retain his lead ahead of the AmD MG, but only after Butcher handed the position back to the BTC Norlin Racing driver after MG driver passed the leading Honda under yellow flags as the safety car was brought out to recover Brett Smith's stricken car at the final chicane.

Once the race was restarted, Smiley was subsequently able to enjoy the luxury of extending his lead ahead of the Eurotech Honda of Matt Simpson, who eventually lost his position to Team BMW's Turkington on the final corner of the race.

Simpson held second right until the death, but a small error going into the Brooke chicane allowed Turkington to snatch second and increase his championship lead over Tom Ingram, who finished in fifth.

Simpson had also looked set to lose third to the Motorbase Performance of Sam Tordoff, but the Honda driver somehow out-dragged Tordoff's Ford Focus RS to the line by just 0.059s.

More to follow.