Aron Smith has triumphantly handed Team BKR their first ever British Touring Car Championship victory after resisting both Gordon S🅘hedden and Colin Turkington at Rockingham.

The former BMR driver had to contend with three safety car periods, plus an onslaug༒ht of pressure, to record his first BTCC victory since Oulton Park 2014.

Pole-man Smith crucially retained the lead ahead of Matt Neal des💎pite almost being out-dragged by the hard tyre running Hond𒊎a Civic Type-R heading into Deene for the first time.

Once again, before theꦛ race could properly get into its stride, the safety c൩ar negated the slight buffer the leading Volkswagen CC managed to assemble ahead of the chasing pack.

With hard tyre running cars running between the race leader and Gordon Shedden in sixth, Smith judged the restart to perfection and subsequenไtly 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 phas✅e - needed whilst the mar🧔shals retrieved Dave Newsham's stricken Chevrolet - wiped out the Irishman's hard earned three-second advantage.

By now, Honda's Shedden had fought his way into secon✱d and looked poised to derail Smith's victory aspirat꧋ions.

All the while, Subaru's Colin Turkington had somehow powered his way into co🦩ntention on the final step of the rostrum from 15th position.

And Turkington's prospects improve𓄧d 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 shake off boᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚth Shedden and Turkington.

However, Smith held strong to record his first win since Oulton Park 2014 while al﷽so claiming Team BKR's first BTCC triumph in their debut season.

Shedden prevailed over Turkington for second position while Neal and Mat Jackson completed the top-five order despite runꦿning the out of favour hard tyre.

Though West Surrey Racing's Rob Collard arrived into the final r𝄹ace as one of the favourites for the win, the BMW driver had to settle for sixth ahead of Adam Morgan an💖d Jake Hill, who finished seventh and eighth.

Aiden Moffat was ninth for Laser Tools Racing while Subaru's Jason Plato salvaged a more than credible te𒆙nth after produci🍷ng a herculean charge up the order from 27th on the hard tyre.