Plato wins race three at Knockhill from rivals

Jason Plato won the final race of the day from Tom Onslow-Cole and Matt Neal at Knockhill, to leave with an extended championship lead over Matt Neal, who moves back up to second in the standings.

Tom Onslow-Cole started from pole position, but found himself with championship leader Plato right behind after contact at the start of the race between Tom Chilton and Mat Jackson, putting the two cars down the order.

The resulting shuffle saw Andrew Jordan in third in the Pirtek Racing Vauxhall, and James Nash’s Triple Eight Vectra in fourth, ahead of Matt Neal.

On lap 3, Gordon Shedden lost control of his Honda whilst running in third, and also rejoined far down the order. He recovered to finish 9th ahead of Tom Chilton’s Ford in 10th, picking up the final points paying positions.

After a long safety car period brought about by Pinkney going off on lap 9, the race restarted and saw Chevrolet’s Alex MacDowall drop to tenth as Rob Collard and John George in the Tech-Speed Honda Integra get past him.

On lap 20, James Nash was the first of the non-championship contending drivers to make a mistake, going wide of the circuit and dropping back to seventh place, four laps later Andrew Jordan in his Vectra did the same, falling back to sixth, and then passed by Collard and MacDowall to finish eighth.

The lead pass was on lap 22, as Jason Plato swept past the Ford of Tom Onslow-Cole down the main straight, and held on to take his fifth win of the season.

Plato now leads the championship by 20 points from Matt Neal, who now moves back into second place, just four points ahead of Tom Onslow-Cole.