Morgan wins wild red-flag curtailed Thruxton opener

WIX Racing's Adam Morgan has secured a repeat race one British Touring Car Championship victory at Thruxton after steering his way ahead of chaos during a breathless red-flag shortened opener.

Morgan took the lead on the fifth lap of the race and remained in that position as a multitude of chaos - triggered by the puncture of Honda's Matt Neal - ended the race with laps to spare thanks to a multi-car pile up.

Pole-man Tom Ingram successfully maintained his lead ahead of Aiden Moffat but Honda's Matt Neal utilised all of his touring car experience and emerged in the lead coming out of the opening complex.

Moffat's attempt for the lead into the complex made it three-abreast but the young Scot's Mercedes A-Class made contact with Ingram's Toyota Avensis, briefly dropping the Laser Tools Racing runner down the order.

Not only did that allow MG's Josh Cook to jump into second, it also gave Neal the opportunity to stretch away at the front of maximum ballast.

But Neal's lead didn't last for long as the other A-Class of Morgan - who started the race sixth - hit the front at the beginning of the fifth lap. However, the triple champion refused to let Morgan out of his grasp and briefly fought his way back ahead.

All of that bunched the top-seven cars together, creating yet more friction between the leading runners. At the end of that heated exchange of paintwork, Mercedes emerged from the excitement with an unlikely 1-2.

Despite running maximum success ballast, Neal appeared to grow in stature as the race progressed and made his way back past Moffat for second.

The action wasn't about to end there however, as Neal - looking at the prospect of finishing second - suffered a puncture at the end of the eleventh lap.

As Neal attempted to pull his Honda Civic Type-R back into the pits, chaos ensued with MG's Cook spearing into the rear of the Team Dynamics runner, causing a multi-car pile-up.

Honda's race imploded, as reigning champion Gordon Shedden was also caught up in the wreck.

Morgan had already established a three-second lead and cruised to his fourth BTCC win as the red flag fell. Ingram and Motorbase Performance's Andrew Jordan the WIX Racing man on the podium.

Unsurprisingly, the crash created a hugely jumbled top-ten order resulting in Eurotech Racing completing the top-five order with Jeff Smith and Martin Depper finishing in fourth and fifth.

Next up came the trio of West Surrey Racing BMWs, led by Rob Collard in sixth ahead of Sam Tordoff and Jack Goff.

Goodestone Racing's Dan Welch and RCIB Insurance Racing's Jake Hill completed an unlikely top-ten result in ninth and tenth.