Maiden BTCC win 'a dream come true' - Simpson

Matt Simpson has described his maiden British Touring Car Championship victory as 'a dream come true' following his race one triumph at Oulton Park.

The Honda Civic Type-R driver has dominated the weekend so far and delivered a near-perfect lights-to-flag victory after controlling the opening race ahead of Tom Chilton and Andrew Jordan.

Simpson enjoyed a relatively comfortable +1second margin ahead of Chilton for the vast majority of the race, but the Motorbase Performance driver closed to within 0.2s of the leading Honda as the chequered flag fell.

“We had mega pace yesterday in Free Practice 2 and qualifying and I would just have been happy to finish this race as it was already a massive achievement from where we’ve come from,” said Simpson.

“I had to get away cleanly into turn one and managed to get there in the lead. I saw Tom (Chilton) looming but I held on – I’m over the moon as it’s a dream come true."

Simpson's race did hit a slight ripple, however, when smoke began to appear from his Honda after the left front of his Eurotech prepared car began to rub against the tyre.

Ultimately, it mattered little as Simpson was able to hold his nerve and nurse the Type-R to a maiden on his 69th attempt in the series.

"When I saw the smoke coming off the car, I didn’t want to look at my lap board as the minute you start overthinking is when you start to make mistakes," Simpson continued.

"My brakes were fading and I knew I had a bit of a cushion and used that so I didn’t make a silly error. Who knows where I’ll go from here? Watch this space!”