Chilton celebrates first win with Motorbase Performance

Tom Chilton celebrates his first British Touring Car Championship race victory with Motorbase Performance after producing a lights-to-flag victory at Knockhill.

The Ford Focus RS driver became a record breaking 14th different winner this season after beating Team BMW's Colin Turkington in a wet final reverse grid race.

Chilton's first win in Motorbase colours marked his first BTCC success since winning the 2011 season finale at Silverstone.

"My last win was December 1st 2016 when I went from fifth to first to claim the WTCC Independents’ crown and third overall, that was my last win," Chilton told Crash.net.

"It doesn’t feel like it’s been a long time for me. But for my fans in Britain it’s been since the end of 2011."

Having retained his lead at the start, Chilton admitted the excitement of leading the race meant he was in danger of taking too much life out of his tyres as he endeavoured to establish clean air between himself and the chasing pack.

Chilton said the early safety car period allowed him to regroup and preserve the tyres for a more considered attack.

"Getting the start was the most important thing in that race. Then it was a case of not using the tyres too hard, but I went off like a rabbit! I went off way too fast. Luckily there was a safety car, which was handy," Chilton continued.

"I just had to slowly eek out the gap again. I didn’t eek it out as fast as I did the first time because I knew I was being silly to start with as I was so excited.

"I then only slowed pulled away on the restart to protect the tyres. As good as I thought I was being, it is a RWD circuit. We got the job done though. It’s amazing and the team have worked so hard."

Despite building a relatively comfortable lead as the race reached its half-way point, Chilton was forced to fend off an attack from Team BMW's Turkington, who gradually closed the gap as the race progressed.

"Keeping Colin behind, who’s a great competitor in a great car made me very happy. When we crossed the line we were quite a chunk ahead of everyone else," said the race winner.

"As FWD cars go, I think we had the car to beat in those conditions.

"It’s annoying that we qualified where we did because you can’t show the car off until you’re in fresh air. I really showed it off then!"