Rob Collard for eBay Motors, Matt Neal for Honda Racing, and Jason Plato MG KX Momentum Racing, all took victories on the Indy circuit on a day of non-stop action.

An opportunistic move allowed Collard to move from fourth to first in the BMW, equipped with a turbo engine this year, after Jason Plato and Dave Newsham tangled at Paddock Hill bend, which also forced Matt Neal wide.

The incident beached Newsham in the gravel ending his race, Neal's avoidance tactics allowed him to finish second whilst Jason Plato was pipped on the line by Collard's team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole for the final spot on the podium.

"It means so much to us as an independent team - it's our first race with a turbo engine in the car and it feels great. It's the perfect start to our season," said Collard.

Onslow-Cole added: "I'd have loved to have made it a 1-2 finish for us but Matt defended really well and I probably needed to pull my finger out a bit more. It was close with Jason - he got ahead of me exiting the final bend but luckily the BMW had just enough punch to get me ahead by the line."

Historic

Matt Neal's race two win was a historic moment as he became the first driver to win a race in a car built to full Next Generation Touring Car regulations.

Neal and Plato, also in a brand new NGTC MG6, had a race long battle, with the two fierce rivals trading places and paint on a number of occasions.

But their fight allowed Andrew Jordan to close in his Pirtek Racing Honda Civic, who caught and passed Plato, but couldn't do anything about the works Honda of Neal.

Neal said: "I'm really relieved to get to the end and see the flag because that MG was really fast. I'd even told the team on the radio half way through the race I didn't think I could hang on but you keep fighting to the end..."

Plato added: "Mid-race the car felt great but then I fell off a bit of a cliff with how I was using the tyres - we may have gone too far with one area of the set-up so we'll wind that back a bit for race three. I'd say the rest of the paddock is really super-worried about how quick we are out of the blocks."

The race was interrupted by a safety car around mid-distance when Nick Foster flipped the third of the eBay BMW's onto it's roof, but in a testament to the strength of the cars, he was able to walk way from the incident.

Carnage

The day's final race saw carnage when Mat Jackson ran wide on the exit of Paddock Hill bend, causing his Ford Focus to leak oil all over the circuit on the run up to Druids hairpin.

His name-sake, Ollie, was first to come across the slippery track, with his Amd Volkswagen Golf entering Druids backwards.

Six other cars then followed him into the gravel including Tony Gilham, Onslow-Cole and rookie Adam Morgan, which brought out a red-flag.

Collard led the restarted race, but didn't stay in front for long as Jordan stormed past at Clearways. It wasn't long before Plato also got past the BMW.

An intense battle ensued as the 22-year-old and the main twice his age ran nose to tail around the 1.2 mile circuit.

Plato found squeezed past Jordan at Clearways with five laps to go, and pulled away from the Honda to take victory.

The result came as a major surprise as the MG had hardly turned a wheel before the weekend after the deal between the manufacturer and Triple Eight Race Engineering only came to fruition at the start of the year.

Collard continued to fall backwards through the field as the BMW lacked the pace it had shown earlier in the day and he would eventually finish in seventh.

Dave Newsham rounded off the podium spots for Team ES Racing, giving the minnows their first ever podium finish.

The win gave Plato his 69th career BTCC win and he said: "We weren't expecting anything like this. It's been a fantastic day. But I'm just a small part in a team of people without whose efforts... they have done days and days of non-stop work. The way they've brought this car on over the course of the weekend is phenomenal."