Jason Plato takes comfortable race one victory

Jason Plato romped home to a comfortable victory in the opening race of the day at Donington Park.

The Volkswagen driver battled to get past his pole-sitting team-mate Colin Turkington off the line, but had to wait until the exit of Coppice before getting a run on the reigning champion down the Starkey Straight.

From then Plato never looked back, holding a comfortable lead over the chasing pack, managing the gap to the line before taking his first win of the season.

Turkington then lost second to Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden on the second lap, with the Scot pulling off a brave move in to the Old Hairpin. Shedden spent the next couple of laps establishing a gap on Turkington, setting the fastest lap in the process and securing pole position in race two as a result.

Shedden then found the Volkswagen CC of Turkington getting closer in his mirrors, closing right up and, save a move at Redgate which saw the two switch positions back and forth, could not put a realistic challenge to the Honda for second.

Andrew Jordan ran a solid race in fourth, closing in on Turkington and Shedden for a couple of laps but unable to put any real pressure on the podium places, while Sam Tordoff drove a strong race drive for West Surrey Racing to take fifth having started from eighth on the grid.

While Josh Cook was unable to capitalise on his impressive sixth place qualifying result, team-mate Dave Newsham came through from tenth on the grid to finish sixth at the line.

A thrilling battle in the final laps between Jack Goff and Rob Collard saw the former take his MG to seventh following a strong run out of the final corner, while Collard had to settle for eighth, a mammoth gain from his 19th place grid slot.

A moment through the Old Hairpin in the opening laps put an end to Adam Morgan’s charge for the top five, settling for ninth place at the line, but setting the third fastest lap of the race, earning a second row start for race two. Rob Austin rounded out the top ten.

Mike Bushell’s race ended early, with a drive shaft issue on the green flag lap forcing him to the pits before the race had even begun. The team fixed the issue by lap five, but the Ford Focus pulled off at Redgate and went no further.

Simon Belcher, Andy Wilmot and Dan Welch were also non-classified, while Aron Smith failed to make the start with a brake fluid issue.