Josh Files stamped his authority over his AirAsia Renault Clio Cup rivals by claimed a brace of pole position starts for the opening races of this year series at Brands Hatch.

However, a tiny error on the opening lap meant that the Poringland racer was unable to convert his grid position into victory in race one but fought back to claim second place while claiming the extra points for fastest lap.

'It was a very interesting race' explained Files. 'I made a good start but a mistake at Graham Hill caused me to go sideways and drop to fourth.'

'I managed to recover very well and within a lap I got James Colburn at Clearways and showed consistent pace whilst catching Jack Goff and Paul Rivett. I was hoping that I could maintain my pace and pass both of them but unfortunately it just wasn't meant to be.'

Files' second race was also full of incident after leading away from the top spot once more. However a seven car accident saw the safety car deployed wiping out his advantage.

Upon restarting Rivett made light contact with the rear of his car and in a flash the local racer was demoted to fifth place which became fourth when Colburn was awarded a post-race penalty.

'Unfortunately the safety car came out after the first lap carnage, and led to contact at Clearways causing damage to the rear end of my car' confirmed the Direct Debit's Big Break campaign supported racer.

Ollie Jackson made a spectacularly start to his first full British Touring Car Championship season as an innocent party in a race three stopping crash which involved seven cars.

In the opening encounter the Attleborough racer made steady progress up the race order after starting the AmD VW Golf from 16th on the grid loosing 12th place on the final lap to the MG6 of Andy Neate but still claimed his first points in the BTCC.

A top ten result was the target of the weekend for Jackson and the team and was achieved in race two with a stirring eighth place.

The local racer made up a place to 12th on the opening lap and steadily improved to eighth place before Jeff Smith battled past but he was promoted back to his former position when Lea Wood hit problems.

Race three saw Jackson on pole position, after the draw for grid positions, but while battling for fourth place he was a victim of an oil covered track and careered off into the barriers followed by six more cars, which halted proceeding.

Dereham's Will Goff made a solid start to his Porsche Carrera Cup campaign by winning the Pro-Am2 class in his first race before following it up with a second place in class in race two.

Carl Breeze joined Tollbar Racing to contest the Ginetta GT Supercup and narrowly failed to secure a podium place in race one while he trailed in last in race two and retired out of the third while holding a podium position.