Smith holds on for first BTCC win since 2014

Aron Smith has triumphantly handed Team BKR their first ever British Touring Car Championship victory after resisting both Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington at Rockingham.

The former BMR driver had to contend with three safety car periods, plus an onslaught of pressure, to record his first BTCC victory since Oulton Park 2014.

Pole-man Smith crucially retained the lead ahead of Matt Neal despite almost being out-dragged by the hard tyre running Honda Civic Type-R heading into Deene for the first time.

Once again, before the race could properly get into its stride, the safety car negated the slight buffer the leading Volkswagen CC managed to assemble ahead of the chasing pack.

With hard tyre running cars running between the race leader and Gordon Shedden in sixth, Smith judged the restart to perfection and subsequently set about putting clean air between himself and Neal in second.

Up until the ninth lap of the race, Smith's plan worked without fault but a second safety car phase - needed whilst the marshals retrieved Dave Newsham's stricken Chevrolet - wiped out the Irishman's hard earned three-second advantage.

By now, Honda's Shedden had fought his way into second and looked poised to derail Smith's victory aspirations.

All the while, Subaru's Colin Turkington had somehow powered his way into contention on the final step of the rostrum from 15th position.

And Turkington's prospects improved yet further as a third safety car of the race once again slashed the advantage Smith and Shedden had over the rest of the field.

The resumption of proceedings following the final restart proved a much closer affair as Smith struggled to shake off both Shedden and Turkington.

However, Smith held strong to record his first win since Oulton Park 2014 while also claiming Team BKR's first BTCC triumph in their debut season.

Shedden prevailed over Turkington for second position while Neal and Mat Jackson completed the top-five order despite running the out of favour hard tyre.

Though West Surrey Racing's Rob Collard arrived into the final race as one of the favourites for the win, the BMW driver had to settle for sixth ahead of Adam Morgan and Jake Hill, who finished seventh and eighth.

Aiden Moffat was ninth for Laser Tools Racing while Subaru's Jason Plato salvaged a more than credible tenth after producing a herculean charge up the order from 27th on the hard tyre.