Silverstone hosts tense title decider this weekend

Silverstone hosts the grand finale of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship season this weekend, with five drivers in contention for the drivers’ title, with the top three of Matt Neal, Jason Plato & Gordon Shedden separated by just five points.

Honda are looking for their first drivers title as a manufacturer, with the marque winning as an independent in 2006 when Matt Neal took his second Drivers’ Championship title with the Team Dynamics Honda Integra Type-R.

Neal and Chevrolet driver Jason Plato will go head-to-head this weekend to try and win their third Drivers’ Championship, but with three other drivers also looking for their first Championship success.

Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden has been on the pace of his Honda team-mate all year, and is tied with Plato on 220 points in second place going to Silverstone and is as strong a contender for the Championship as Neal & Plato.

Motorbase Performance driver Mat Jackson, who lead the Championship earlier in the season, is now an outside bet for the title coming from 36 points down on Neal, but with 52 to play for, he and independent rival James Nash in the 2007-2008 Championship winning Vauxhall Vectra of Triple Eight will both be fighting both for independents’ honours and until the points say they’re out of the overall fight.

Let’s quickly track back on how the points have lead us here this year.

Brands Hatch

Honda’s Matt Neal takes pole whilst Gordon Shedden’s season starts horribly with a crash in practice ruling him out of qualifying. Despite this, Shedden bounces back to outscore Neal on race day as Neal is tapped out at turn one by Chevrolet’s Alex MacDowall. Jason Plato takes two wins to leave Brands Hatch Indy with the Championship lead.

Leader: Plato by 12pts

Donington Park

Honda continue to show their pace, securing a 1-2 in qualifying whilst Plato qualifies a lowly eighth. Matt Neal takes victory in race one, a podium in race two and points in race three whilst two DNFs for Gordon Shedden in races one and three drop the Scotsman down the standings. Jason Plato has a massive crash in race two, but the team do a fantastic job to repair the car for race three, with help from Honda no less, and Plato drives through the field to sixth, but leaves Donington Park fourth in the standings, whilst the consistent James Nash actually leaves with the Championship lead.

Leader: Nash by 4pts

Thruxton

The first of TOCA’s parity measures takes place, with Honda despondent at the change which leaves them with 0.1bar less boost than any of their rivals for the rest of the season. Despite this, Shedden takes pole position again at the fast Hampshire circuit with Plato down in fifth, almost a second off of pole. Shedden and Neal share wins in the first two races, with Plato turning the reverse grid to his advantage and takes race three, although retirement in race one with a puncture saw another low points score and Plato leave Thruxton sixth in the drivers’ standings.

Leader: Neal by 12pts

Oulton Park

Another Honda 1-2 in qualifying is enough to put Plato at his most negative mood all year. Shedden wins race one with Plato second, but a disastrous move from Matt Neal in race two sees the two Hondas collide whilst running first and second and hands Plato victory at the final corner.

Despite this, Plato still was unhappy with the pace of the Hondas and criticised the Championship administration live on air after his victory. Mat Jackson pulled off another race three win to keep himself right in the Championship battle, whilst Shedden has now fully recovered from his Brands Hatch & Donington set-backs, just two points down on Neal.

Quite notably, Oulton Park was the last time the Honda Civic has taken pole position in 2011.

Leader: Neal by 2pts

Croft

Plato takes his first pole position of the season at Croft, but contact at the start of the wet race drops him out of contention for the win, with Matt Neal taking another victory for Honda. Another win in race two for Neal sees the 44-year-old pull out pull out the biggest lead in the Championship seen all year with Plato retiring in race two and scoring no points in race three. Another race three victory for Jackson moves him to second, just nine points behind Neal in the standings after Croft.

Leader: Neal by 9pts

Snetterton

After the mid-season break there’s another raft of changes in order to equalise the turbocharged and normally aspirated cars. At the new Snetterton 300 layout there’s another pole for Plato, and this time it is converted into victory with Alex MacDowall sealing a Chevrolet 1-2. Shedden wins race two whilst Neal scores nothing in the first two races. Jackson takes his fourth (and so far most recent win of the season) in race three and takes the Championship lead in his independent Ford, eight points ahead of Shedden with Neal dropping to third.

Leader: Jackson by 8pts

Knockhill

Improved pace from Arena sees the first and so far only non-Honda/Chevrolet pole of the year for Tom Chilton’s new Ford Focus. Chilton goes on to win race one with the two Civics behind, whilst Honda take a 1-2 in the second race with Plato stringing together a pair of seventh place finishes. Plato looked set to recover ground in the third race, but was sent off the track after contact with Tom Boardman who went on to take his first career win with Plato declaring his title hopes as over, now 35 points down on new Championship leader Shedden.

Knockhill was the start of a disastrous two race weekends for Mat Jackson, scoring just one point for fastest lap at Knockhill and carrying that same bad luck to the next round at Rockingham.

Leader: Shedden by 1pt

Rockingham

Motorbase add another car for Michael Caine in an attempt to improve their chances after the disastrous meeting at Knockhill, whilst TOCA introduce more changes, adding weight to all the turbocharged cars. Plato takes pole position with the best Honda of Matt Neal in fourth, which is where they would both finish the first race. Shedden and Neal drive past Plato in race two to finish first and third, whilst Shedden was hit by Foster’s BMW in race three and struggled with handling, dropping out of the points with Plato finishing ahead of Neal in fifth, whilst James Nash took his first career win.

Leader: Neal & Shedden tied

Brands Hatch GP

Jason Plato takes his fourth pole of the season and converts that into two victories to completely overhaul the gap to the Hondas and take the Championship lead after race two. This was helped in part due to punctures for both Shedden and Neal in race one, with the two Hondas driving back into the points in race two and with the aid of the reverse grid, defiantly charging through past Foster & Chilton in race three to finish with a 1-2, giving Neal just a five point lead over Plato & Shedden heading to the final round. Strong runs for Jackson & Nash at Brands Hatch has also kept them in contention for the title.

Leader: Neal by 5pts

Today, Plato celebrates his 44th birthday going into the final round of the season, but unfortunately for Plato, who maintains his normally aspirated Chevrolet will be at a major disadvantage at the fast Silverstone National circuit, there’s no rain forecast for the weekend.

The final round of 2011 also has a record entry of 30 cars taking part with the addition of the latest NGTC-specification car to the championship, the Vauxhall Insignia of Thorney Motorsport.

No – Driver – Team – Car – Specification
1 – Jason Plato – Silverline Chevrolet – Chevrolet Cruze – S2000
2 – Matt Neal – Honda Racing Team – Honda Civic – S2000/NGTC
4 – Tom Onslow-Cole – Arena Motorsport – Ford Focus – S2000/NGTC
5 – Tom Chilton – Arena Motorsport – Ford Focus – S2000/NGTC
6 – James Thompson – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – S2000/NGTC
7 – Mat Jackson – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – S2000/NGTC
8 – Robert Collard – West Surrey Racing – BMW 320si – S2000
11 – Frank Wrathall – Dynojet Racing – Toyota Avensis – NGTC
13 – Rob Austin – Rob Austin Racing – Audi A4 – NGTC
14 – James Nash – Triple Eight Race Engineering – Vauxhall Vectra – S2000/NGTC
17 – Dave Newsham – Special Tuning Racing – SEAT León – S2000/NGTC
18 – Nick Foster – West Surrey Racing – BMW 320si – S2000
20 – Alex MacDowall – Silverline Chevrolet – Chevrolet Cruze – S2000
22 – Tom Boardman – Special Tuning Racing – SEAT León – S2000/NGTC
28 – John George – Tech-Speed Motorsport – Chevrolet Cruze – S2000
29 – Paul O’Neill – Tech-Speed Motorsport – Chevrolet Cruze – S2000
31 – Chris Swanwick – Rob Austin Racing – Audi A4 – NGTC
34 – Tony Gilham – Geoff Steel Racing – BMW 320si – S2000/NGTC
42 – Daniel Welch – Welch Automotive – Proton Gen-2 – NGTC
43 – Lea Wood – Central Group Racing – Honda Integra – BTC
44 – Andy Neate – Arena Motorsport – Ford Focus – S2000/NGTC
48 – Ollie Jackson – Triple Eight Race Engineering – Vauxhall Vectra – S2000/NGTC
50 – Tony Hughes – Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis – NGTC
52 – Gordon Shedden – Honda Racing Team – Honda Civic – S2000/NGTC
55 – Jeff Smith – Eurotech Racing – Vauxhall Vectra – S2000/NGTC
66 – Liam Griffin – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – S2000/NGTC
67 – John Thorne – Thorney Motorsport – Vauxhall Insignia – NGTC
77 – Andrew Jordan – Eurotech Racing – Vauxhall Vectra – S2000/NGTC
78 – Chris James – Team ES Racing – Chevrolet Lacetti – S2000
99 – Martin Byford – AmD Milltek Racing – Volkswagen Golf – S2000/NGTC