SAM Tordoff has notched what he called a long overdue first victory of the season in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The Rawdon man led home a Motorbase one-two with Tom Chilton – their first since Thruxton in 2010 – with Ricky Collard completing the podium in race one at Silverstone in what was the 25th round of the campaign.

Tordoff took pole position in his Team GardX Racing with Motorbase Ford, but immediately came under attack from Collard's fast-starting BMW.

But the young rookie pushed too hard on the run down to Copse, running his car wide on the exit of the corner and dropping to fifth as Chilton slipped into second in the Shredded Wheat-backed Focus.

The fight for victory was always close as Tordoff fended off Chilton to grab his first win of the season, while Collard's maiden podium was hugely popular.

Tordoff said of his triumph: "It was long overdue! The first job was getting a good start because I knew Ricky (Collard) would be quick off the line, then I settled into a rhythm.

"I made it difficult for myself when I stuck a wheel on the gravel and let Tom (Chilton) in.

"I knew in my head what I wanted to do but I'd be lying if I thought it would go quite that well.

"Tom was racing for the win but we kept it clean. I knew from the body language of Tom's car that he was trying and we had no team orders."

Chilton said: "I gave him one last push on the last lap and our bumpers must have only been a couple of millimetres from each other."

"With the hard tyre and 66 kilograms on board for the second one, it's going to be a difficult one."

However, Tordoff picked up another podium in round 26 as Speedworks Motorsport's Tom Ingram produced one of his trademark drives through the field to win, this time from 15th.

The Rawdon man did well to take a podium with that maximum ballast, and said: "We'll take that.

"It was a good race for us. We were in a different race with weight on board to those without.

"They just caught me within a lap. That was me pushing and they caught me standing still. It was tricky. We can be proud of it.

"Races one and two have been perfect really. Race three, with 57 kilograms and the hard tyre, I'm not looking forward to. Tom (Chilton) raced the hard tyre in race two and dropped back so I need to go and pick his brains."

Tordoff's fears were well founded as he finished 14th in race 27, with the Mercedes-Benz of Aiden Moffat becoming the 16th different race winner this year.

Tordoff is now up to tenth in the overall standings with 184 points, with the title being decided between Team BMW's Colin Turkington (300 points), Ingram (266) and Chilton (236) in a Brands Hatch showdown on September 29-30.