Jason Plato leads MG 1-2 in first race at Oulton Park
Jason Plato took a lights-to-flag victory in the first race of the day at Oulton Park, leading home team-mate Sam Tordoff for a Triple Eight MG one-two.
Plato led away from pole, with Tordoff fighting off a strong challenge from the Honda Racing Team Civic of Gordon Shedden to hold second place into Cascades.
And the top three positions on lap one remained unchanged throughout, with Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan rising to fourth in his heavily smoking Honda Civic.
Colin Turkington was a strong fifth in his BMW 125i for West Surrey Racing, ahead of Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal and Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson.
The top ten was completed by Speedworks Motorsport’s Dave Newsham, who fell back from his fourth position on the grid, ahead of Toyota stable-mate Adam Morgan and Turkington’s team-mate Rob Collard, the latter pair separated by just 0.033 at the flag.
Liam Griffin took the honours in the Jack Sears Trophy in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, after passing long time leader Lea Wood on the final lap of the race. He finished 19th overall.
It was a largely clean race, with a number of drivers making good forward progress.
Jordan passed Newsham at Lodge on lap seven, with Turkington passing the Toyota Avensis at the same spot a lap later.
Neal then passed Newsham by outdragging him out of the hairpin, and outbraking the Toyota into Knickerbrook. The triple champion then had to defend hard from Jackson’s Ford Focus, which passed Newsham at Old Hall on lap 11, making up four positions from its grid spot.
Nick Foster also raced strongly in the third BMW 125i, making up 10 places from his grid slot to finish 12th on the soft tyres.
The biggest drama came on lap 12 when Tom Onslow-Cole, defending hard from Collard in his Tony Gilham Racing Volkswagen CC, put a wheel on the grass at Druids and spun off. He recovered to finish 15th.
Frank Wrathall’s Dynojet Toyota was running in the leading pack early on, but slowed on lap two heading into Knickerbrook. He recovered to the pits and rejoined, finishing a lap down in 23rd.
The second race of the day gets under way at 14:34 BST.
