Photo: PSP Images

Plato leads first Chevrolet 1-2 at Snetterton

By

Jason Plato has lead Chevrolet’s first ever 1-2 in the British Touring Car Championship since they entered the championship as a manufacturer, after a controversial clash at the start between Plato and Neal.

The Chevrolets got away well at the line, but Honda’s Matt Neal had a great charge from fourth and around the first corner had driven around the outside of both of the Chevrolets, when Plato and Neal made contact. Neal spun and fell down to the back of the pack, and would go on to finish in 18th place.

From there on, the Chevrolets were on there own, with Jason Plato and Alex MacDowall holding firm ahead of Gordon Shedden in third.

The independents’ battle behind saw a sensational first win for Frank Wrathall in the Dynojet Racing Toyota Avensis. Wrathall first passes James Nash for fifth place on the second lap, and after pressuring the Arena Motorsport Ford Focus for four laps, saw Chilton make a mistake at Riches and Wrathall moved up to fourth to claim his best result in the BTCC and his first championship points.

Tom Boardman had made great progress from last on the grid and was up to tenth in the Special Tuning Racing SEAT León by the end of lap four, but suffered another engine failure on lap five and retired.

Rob Austin was running in a strong 11th place in the Audi A4, before he was spun with contact with the Eurotech Racing Vauxhall Vectra of Jeff Smith. The Audi driver recovered to finish 15th after battling hard in the late stages with the Ford Focus of Andy Neate.

The other key battle in the last laps was the battle for what became sixth after a final lap problem for Tom Chilton dropped him to ninth. Mat Jackson’s turbocharged Ford Focus was fending off the Tech-Speed Chevrolet of Paul O’Neill, who had fallen behind Jackson on lap two after going wide whilst fighting with James Nash’s Triple Eight Vauxhall.

Jason Plato takes his fifth win of the year, and his first since Oulton Park. Alex MacDowall’s second place is the 20-year-old’s best result since Knockhill last season.

Neal’s championship lead is cut to just four points ahead of Mat Jackson, with Gordon Shedden 10 points adrift. Jason Plato now moves up to fourth in the standings ahead of James Nash and Andrew Jordan with his win, and is 22 points shy of Matt Neal.