Cataclean Plato Racing made history at Donington Park earlier today (18 April) as Dan Rowbottom took victory in the first ever BTCC Qualifying Race in the debut weekend for the team.

The highly anticipated 'Race to Pole' – introduced during the off-season – saw the best tin top drivers in the UK battle for not only grid positions for tomorrow's opener but also for the first haul of points of the season.

It came as little surprise to see Tom Ingram (Team VERTU) and Ash Sutton (NAPA Racing UK) – with six BTCC titles between them – to lineup on the front row of the Qualifying Race grid by virtue of their flying laps during the earlier session, but both hit trouble during the race.

It was a breathtaking start and opening lap as Ingram, Sutton, Rowbottom and NAPA Racing UK's Dan Cammish fought it out for P1.

There was little space as Sutton slipped his #116 Ford Focus Titanium down the inside of Ingram at the start of lap two, and with the gap running out his car slid across the grass and eventually into the gravel.

It was a double blow for NAPA Racing UK as Cammish was held up the incident while Ingram, Rowbottom and now Speedworks Corolla Racing's Josh Cook pulled clear.

There was further drama shortly after as news filtered through of a five second penalty for Ingram for being out of position at the start of the race.

It proved to be a race against the clock and with Ingram needing to pull clear he eventually finished short by just 0.024s as the chequered flag waved.

Celebrations ensued as Team Principal and Team Manager Jason Plato cut an emotional figure with his incredible BTCC comeback producing a quite fairytale story.

Ingram did enough to grab second ahead of a promising performance from Cook in the #66 Toyota Corolla.

More to follow...