Morgan holds off Turkington and Sutton for race three victory

Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport's Adam Morgan has taken his first British Touring Car Championship victory of the season after holding off Colin Turkington and Ash Sutton in a tense final race at Thruxton.

The BMW 330e M Sport driver started the reverse grid race from second on the grid and immediately jumped ahead of the slow starting BTC Racing Honda of Jason Plato to move into a lead he would never relinquish.

For much of the race, Morgan had multiple champions Turkington, Sutton and Plato glued to the rear of his 3 Series, but the Ciceley driver never looked like buckling, despite having to contend with a brief safety car early in the race.

With two-time champion Plato falling off the track late in the race, the leading quartet turned into a leading trio with Sutton ramping up the pressure on Team BMW's Turkington.

That perhaps gave Morgan a crucial bit of air as Turkington had to balance attack with defence. Nevertheless, Morgan held his nerve to cross the line 0.5s ahead of Turkington, with Sutton clinching a hatrick of podium finishes in third.

Team Dynamics Honda's Dan Rowbottom was fourth ahead of championship leader Josh Cook in fifth. Cook now enjoys a healthy 23-point lead ahead of defending champion Sutton, while a profitable day for Turkington has moved the BMW driver up to third in the standings.

Tom Ingram managed to pick up further points on his recovery from his race one woes in sixth, ahead of EXCELR8 Hyundai team mate Dan Lloyd in seventh.

Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall duo Michael Crees and Ash Hand finished eighth and ninth, while Toyota's Rory Butcher completed the top-ten.