Win goes to Jackson, but Championship lead to Nash

James Nash has moved into the championship lead after an eventful final race of the day at Donington, won by Mat Jackson. Nash moves into the lead of the BTCC standings for the first time in his career thanks to his third placed finish behind Jackson and Jordan, taking a four point lead ahead of Matt Neal in the championship.

Defending champion Jason Plato took his first points of the day after great work by his RML Silverline team to rebuild his barrel rolled Chevrolet Cruze and get it onto the grid for race three. Starting from the back of the grid, Plato managed to take sixth at the finish, thanks mainly to the demise of many of those in front of him.

Following an action packed race two earlier in the day there was no let-up in the action right from the off, as for the second time on Sunday there was a start line accident, with series rookie Dave Newsham taking to the grass to overtake Jeff Smith but inadvertently rotating himself through the pack and backwards into the innocent Tony Hughes, who was forced out of the race.

The action continued at the first corner, with Alex MacDowall leading but behind the fast starting VW Golf of Tom Onslow-Cole having a big slide, as did front row starter Tony Gilham. Forced wide and into the gravel around the two errant machines was Matt Neal.

The double BTCC champion fortuitously re-joined halfway down the pack, as the front half of the field behind MacDowall went into contact mode at the Old Hairpin.

Coming down the inside Jackson touched Nash whose Vectra was forced wide into Tom Chilton who in turn was turned sharp right into Onslow-Cole, who then tagged the rear of Rob Collard’s BMW. The WSR car made it back to the pits, as did a severely crabbing Golf, while Chilton’s day ended in the Old Hairpin gravel trap.

With the safety car out Jackson was promoted to second thanks to the demise of the four cars directly in front of him, and when racing resumed he made swift work of dispatching MacDowall before heading off into the distance and victory by 2.5 seconds.

Behind there was plenty of great action as Jordan moved past Neal into second after the Honda man ran wide, and Andy Neate was shoved out of fifth when he closed the door too late on Nash at Redgate.

Nash then made swift work of a struggling Neal, getting a run on the Civic out of the Old Hairpin and through the Schwantz Curve allowing him to take the inside line into Macleans. While a lap later MacDowall ran wide at the Old Hairpin allowing Jordan to pull a similar move on him as the Chevrolet slide to third, which became fourth two laps down the road when Nash passed him at the chicane.

With Neal slipping down the order this led to the Honda having an entertaining battle with Smith, and the pair were soon joined by Gilham and Plato. The RML driver then added a few more bumped panels to his Cruze with some rubbing as he attempted to pass Gilham at the chicane, but to no avail.

The Vectra driver then passed Neal allowing him to give chase to Smith, with Plato sliding past Neal under braking for the chicane as Frank Wrathall gave a good display of the Toyota Avensis’ capabilities by mixing it with the two champions despite being several laps down.

The drama in the pack wasn’t quite over, with Smith and Gilham catching Neate in fifth. The Pirtek machine made it past the Focus, but as Gilham attempted to pass to the other side of Neate through the Schwantz Curve, the Arena driver moved across, making contact with the luminous Vauxhall. Neate speared off across the gravel and into a race ending contact with the tyre wall, while Gilham only lasted one corner further until his right rear tyre failed, pitching him off the circuit.

All this elevated Plato into sixth, just ahead of Neal and Paul O’Neill. Rounding out the points in ninth and tenth were Liam Griffin and Nick Foster, with both drivers scoring their first ever BTCC points. Just as with Plato, Griffin’s race two shunt had caused a busy interval for his Motorbase mechanics, with two points an excellent reward for their troubles.

There was also a first ever race finish for Rob Austin and his NGTC Audi, with the A4 coming home in a ‘lucky’ thirteenth position.

At the top of the standings Nash leads the way on 59 points, with Neal second on 55 and race three winner Jackson third a further point behind.