Jason Plato wins as Honda hit self-destruct
A last corner collision between Honda teammates Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal gave Jason Plato victory in race two at Oulton Park. Having led the entire race comfortably, surviving two safety car periods, Shedden was punted into the Lodge corner gravel by Neal on the final lap, as the two Honda Civics twice made contact in the final two tours.
Shedden had survived an earlier tap from Neal at the hairpin on the penultimate lap, with the Scot’s teammate resisting the urge to capitalise on the resulting slide. A lap later at Lodge, as Shedden looked set to take his second win of the day and the contact was much firmer, sending both Civics straight on at the right hander and into the gravel.
The erstwhile leader recovered to drive through the gravel and back onto track to take sixth, while Neal’s race ended nose first against the Lodge tyre wall, having thrown away a Honda 1-2 and given Plato victory.
Behind Plato there was further drama, as James Nash and Rob Collard spent the final lap nose-to-tail, with the BWM outdragging the Vauxhall out of Lodge to narrowly cross the line ahead, for Collard’s first Independent win of 2011.
In damp conditions, with unlike the earlier race didn’t dry significantly so removing much of the tyre lottery, Shedden led from the start, ahead of Plato, Nash and the two fast starting BMWs, which demoted Alex MacDowall at the start.
A lap one safety car bunched the field up as Jeff Smith exited the pits on cold tyres and went straight off into the Cascades gravel trap.
Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal made their way past MacDowall and Nick Foster over the next couple of laps, as the BMW’s performance seemed to come in-and-out as the amount of water on track varied.
Neal moved past Nash into third on lap eight into Lodge, making that second a few hundred metres later by passing Plato through Old Hall. Three laps later and Neal was back behind the Chevrolet and Vauxhall, sliding straight on under braking at the hairpin, in a sign of things to come.
The Honda man immediately recovered, passing Nash at the end of the lap before comfortably driving past Plato over hill top to complete the overtake well before the chicane.
Neal swiftly began to close on Shedden, who had enjoyed a quiet race, but John George’s abandoned car in the Lodge corner gravel brought the safety car out for its second appearance of the race.
With the safety car returning to the pit lane at the end of lap 15, three racing laps remained, but with Hondas one and two it seemed a controlled end to the race was in store. Instead Neal first punted Shedden wide at the hairpin as once again the double BTCC Champion’s braking seemed to go awry, and then a lap later made heavier contact at Lodge.
Shedden held a couple of car lengths lead over Neal, presumably confident his first position was safe, but the second Honda Civic went for the gap on the inside, making contact and sending both cars sliding slowly straight on towards the gravel.
With Plato crossing the line to his most fortunate BTCC victory, behind Collard outdragged Nash, with Andrew Jordan and MacDowall also crossing the line ahead of Shedden.
Seventh was Paul O’Neill, followed by Foster, for the BMW man’s second points finish of the day, ahead of Mat Jackson and Tom Chilton. Behind the Global Ford Focus Lea Wood just missed out on his second points finish of the day, having competed strongly throughout, while the trio of NGTC cars finished 13th, 14th and 15th, with Rob Austin heading home Frank Wrathall and Tony Hughes.
While the last lap incident may have hurt Shedden’s race, it also damaged Neal’s Championship lead, with Nash closing to one point behind the Honda driver, with Plato a further two points in arrears.
In the reverse grid ballot Jackson has been awarded pole, giving the fifth placed man in the standings the chance to improve what has so far been a poor weekend for the Airwaves team.
UPDATE:
Rob Collard was subsequently given a one second penalty for the contact enabled pass on James Nash, which dropped him to third in the order.
