EXCELR8 Motorsport's Dan Lloyd took a popular and emotional home British T💝ouring Car Championship race victory after holding🐻 off four-time champion Colin Turkington during race one at Croft.

Lloyd and Turkington's battle for the race victory marks a miraculous♛ uptu𒈔rn in fortunes for the pair after both drivers were involved in a nasty high-impact shunt at Oulton Park just two weeks to go.

Both EXCELR8 Motorsport and West Surrey Racing rallied to get their drivers on the grid, with the Hyundai outfit rebuilding Lloyd's heavily damaged i30N challenger, while the Team BMW sꦬquad had to rebuild an older BMW 330e M Sport chassis for their four-time champion Turkington.

With Turkington starting the race from pole position, Lloyd immediately latched onto the rear of the Team BMW dri𝓰ver by turn on🌳e after making the jump from third to second.

As Turkington struggled to build tyre temperature on the opening lap, Lloyd seized his chance and blasted around the outside of ꩲthe BMW on the approach to the Jim Clark Esses.

From that point onw🌃ards, during what proved to be a safety car dominated race, Lloyd didn't put a foot wrong.

The s⛦afety car was called upon on two occasions after Ollie Jackson and Aron Taylor-Smith both saw their races꧒ end in the tyre wall.

Each restart presented an opportunity for Lloyd to stretch his advanღtage slightly as Turkington's BM⭕W regained tyre temperature.

However, Lloyd's pos𓂃ition in the lead of the rac🗹e came under severe jeopardy during the final two laps, where Turkington ramped up the pressure in the final sector of the lap.

The four-time champion pulled alongside Lloyd heading towards the Complex, but the Hyundai driver was inch perfe𝓀ct in the defence of his position and crossed the line 0.3s ahead of Turkington to secure a second career BTCC win.

Team Dynamics Honda's Dan Rowbottom completed🃏 the podium in third after holding off a last-lap attack from Tom Ingram in fourth.

Jake Hill ♍completed the top-five order in fifth ahead of defending three-time champion Ash Sutton in sixth.

Toyota Gazoo Ra🎃cing UK's Rory Butcher enjoyed a profitable opening race to finish in seventh after starting from 11th.

Fresh off the back of his first podium finish of the year at Oulton Park, Aiden Moffat posted a strong result in eighth, while George Gamble and Tom Cꦏhilton completed the top-ten in ninth and tenth.