Aron Smith h꧑as 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 BTC🧔C ꦏvictory since Oulton Park 2014.

Pole-man Smith crucially retained the lead ahe🐼ad 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 chas🐈ing pack.

With hard tyre r🦋unning 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 a🌟dvantage.

By now, Honda's Shedden had fought his way into second and looked poi😼sed to derail Smiꩵth'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 po⭕sition.

And Turk🎉ington's pros🙈pects 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 sha🧔ke off both Shedden and Turkington.

Howeve🐓r, 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 positiꦅon 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 BMꦚW driver had to settle for sixth ahead of Adam Morgan and Jake Hill, who f🐭inished seventh and eighth.

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