Ricky Collard claimed his first victory in the British Touring Car Championship in a lively final race of the season at Brands Hatch. The Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai driver crossed the line first following a spirited challenge from Alliance Racing team-mates Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton in their Ford Focus Titaniums.
Dexter Patterson led briefly from the line in his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon, after being drawn on pole position for the reversed grid. Both he and Collard, who started third, made the most of the grip afforded by Goodyear's soft tyre to exit the corner ahead of Patterson's team-mate Moffat, who started from the outside of the front row on the medium.
Cammish and Sutton were two others on the soft tyre to quickly move past Moffat, with the former just in front. Sutton attempted a move around the outside at Graham Hill Bend but had to save a slide, and then the safety car was summoned before anything further could unfold.
The neutralisation followed an incident further back which claimed the Excelr8 Hyundais of outgoing champion Tom Ingram and Tom Chilton, in his final start as a BTCC competitor. Nick Halstead's Audi A3 and Lewis Selby's Ford Focus Titanium were the others to exit the race early, while Daniel Rowbottom managed to escape in his CPRL Mercedes following a detour through the gravel.
Following the clean-up operation, racing resumed at the start of lap seven, with Collard leaving it late before returning to full speed. Patterson, Cammish and Sutton were all tucked up immediately behind the Hyundai, with a gap forming ahead of Moffat in fifth. Sutton passed Cammish for third at Surtees before immediately homing in on Patterson and crossing the line at the end of the lap with his nose just in front.
Cammish attempted to follow the five-time title winner through but was forced to wait as Patterson fought back. Sutton, meanwhile, was already hot on Collard's heels.
Sutton attacked Collard at Paddock Hill Bend the next time around, but Collard defended robustly on the approach to Druids to make it clear it was not going to be easy. Sutton then made an attempt to get alongside Collard on the Derek Minter Straight but ended up on the grass as Collard tried to defend. Sutton ended that lap in ninth as a result.
Cammish passed Patterson to take second on lap 10 and set up his own charge after Collard. But that was brought to a halt when the safety car returned to the track on lap 12 following Rowbottom's exit from proceedings with flaming brakes.
The race resumed once again on lap 15 and Sutton, having regained some ground, swept past Moffat at Druids to take fourth. A little further back, Aron Taylor-Smith ended up on the grass at Westfield after contact with Charles Rainford, but he was able to crawl back to the pits with no need for another safety car.
Collard continued to lead throughout the tense final laps, with Cammish and Sutton — now having passed Patterson — looming large behind. Sutton passed Cammish at Paddock Hill Bend on the final lap but dropped back behind the other Ford on the Grand Prix section of the circuit to finish third as Collard crossed the line first.
Patterson finished fourth, with Moffat coming home one place behind his team-mate as comfortably the best medium-tyre runner. Adam Morgan produced another strong drive to finish sixth from 11th on the grid, one place ahead of Josh Cook, who ran in the group just behind Moffat throughout. Dan Lloyd's Restart Racing Hyundai was eighth, in front of Gordon Shedden, who narrowly avoided being caught up in the same incident which saw his team-mate Taylor-Smith fall out of contention. Mike Doble completed the top 10 in the last of the Power Maxed Audis home.
Rainford's WSR BMW continued to 11th after the late-race drama, two places ahead of Daryl De Leon's sister car with Chris Smiley's Restart Racing Hyundai between them. Sam Osborne finished his final BTCC race in 14th, ahead of Ryan Bensley, Lewis Gilbert and Nicolas Hamilton, the three other classified finishers.