Photo: PSP Images

Plato wins race one as Neal knocked out

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Jason Plato wins his record breaking 61st BTCC race atthe first round at Brands Hatch, whilst pole sitter Matt Neal was knocked out at Druids and recorded a DNF.

The race saw action before the green flag was even waived with the Motorbase Focus of Liam Griffin contacting the West Surrey Racing BMW of Rob Collard. Griffin’s car stopped out on circuit causing an aborted start, whilst Collard had to start from the pit lane.

At the start, Plato made a great start in his Chevrolet and battled side-by-side with the Honda Civic of Matt Neal through the first corner at Paddock Hill bend. Plato was on the inside for the second corner at Druids, whilst contact behind the leading pair between Chevrolet’s Alex MacDowall and Andrew Jordan resulted in Matt Neal being spun out into the gravel trap.

After a short safety car period, the race restarted with James Nash now second in the Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra. Tom Chilton quickly moved up past the Alex MacDowall and settled in third, with the remaining Motorbase Ford Focus of Mat Jackson following past and finishing fourth.

After the Fords had passed him, Alex MacDowall was now in fifth and had to fight off Tom Boardman for several laps. Andrew Jordan behind was eventually able to get the better of Boardman’s SEAT at Clearways before passing MacDowall for P5 on lap 13 but would later retire with a puncture.

Gordon Shedden in the remaining Civic was making good progress and was up to 13th by the end of the first lap, and continued to work his way through the field until he caught the Special Tuning Racing SEAT of Boardman. With wheel to wheel contact through Clearways and later Druids, Shedden managed to move past Boardman on the penultimate lap to secure sixth, but Boardman was forced off circuit and headed into the pits and retire.

Nash set the fastest lap and was closing down on Plato in the final stages, but never got close enough to challenge the reigning champion. Nash however claimed the independents’ class victory to seal a great result for Triple Eight, with team-mate Tony Gilham finishing eighth on his BTCC debut, the top rookie.

For the next race, Plato will start from pole but will also pick-up maximum ballast in the Chevrolet Cruze, whilst it will be Matt Neal’s turn to start from the back.