Onslow-Cole takes race two, as Plato fights back

Tom Onslow-Cole wins race two at Donington Park, but a ballast free Jason Plato worked his way from the back of the pack to third place to extend his lead by one point.

A creeping Matt Neal, starting fifth at the start earned a drive through penalty almost instantly, but at the start proper, Tom Chilton again had a poor getaway and was passed by Mat Jackson’s BMW. Team Aon teammate Tom Onslow-Cole contrarily had a great start, passing three cars to end up fifth at the end of lap one.

Alex MacDowall’s Chevrolet also overtook the Team Aon Ford of Tom Chilton briefly, before a mistake at Goddards saw Chilton reclaim third, with Steven Kane and Tom Boardman following through ahead of MacDowall.

David Pinkney caused the only safety car deployment of the race on lap two after a short visit to the gravel trap, but he was able to get going again. Wisely Matt Neal had already served his drive through penalty at the end of lap one and so was able to catch up to the back of the pack.

At this point, Jason Plato was already up to ninth after starting 19th, and on the restart was quick to pass Lea Wood’s Honda for eighth, and then Tom Boardman’s SEAT for seventh on the first green flag lap.

Tom Onslow-Cole continued to make good progress, passing his teammate and the Mat Jackson to move up to second place.

On Lap 6, Alex MacDowall, now ahead of Steven Kane appeared to back-up the BMW into teammate Jason Plato. Plato took advantage to move through the pair up to fifth place, whilst James Nash was able to sneak through Kane and MacDowall, who after cutting across Goddards lost ground and also fell back behind Tom Boardman.

Matt Neal was on a recovery drive after his penalty, and was running tenth at this point, and would later end up in eighth place.

On lap ten, Tom Onslow-Cole took the lead of the race from Gordon Shedden, whilst Jason Plato moved up to third, first passing Tom Chilton’s Team Aon Ford and then Mat Jackson’s Airwaves BMW.

Plato then set on chasing down the top two, but ran out of time, despite setting the fastest lap in the process.

On the final lap, Rob Collard, who had started fifteenth, was battling Mat Jackson for fifth, who had already lost position to Tom Chilton, but found himself running wide onto the start-finish straight, allowing Steven Kane back up to sixth place.

Andrew Jordan, who had started from 20th place, ended up ninth, and will have pole position for race three after the reverse grid draw, with Matt Neal given an opportunity to recover his championship standing in the final race, as he’ll start alongside him in second place.

The championship situation is that Jason Plato now has a 15 point lead, but it’s now from Gordon Shedden & Tom Onslow-Cole, who are both in joint-second place after their 1st and 2nd place results in race two. Matt Neal is now 29 points adrift in fourth place.