Jason Plato holds off Rob Collard in second Thruxton race

Team BMR’s Jason Plato held off West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard to win a titanic battle in the second race of the day at Thruxton, with Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden backing up his earlier victory in third.

Polesitter Plato lost the lead to Collard’s fast-starting BMW 125i off the line, but used his Volkswagen CC’s superior top speed to get the draft up Woodham Hill on lap two and pass before the final chicane.

Collard was glued to the back of the Volkswagen for the entire 16 laps, but the wily Plato never gave him a serious sniff of a passing opportunity. Behind, Shedden held off the charging Triple Eight Racing MG of Jack Goff to take the championship lead, with erstwhile leader Matt Neal retiring from the race after a clash with Aron Smith.

Colin Turkington had a quiet run to fifth ahead of Collard’s team-mate Sam Tordoff, with Andrew Jordan, Adam Morgan, Rob Austin and Aiden Moffat completing the top 10. The top eight will be reversed for the final race, giving Morgan pole.

There were incidents aplenty, not least at the start, when Shedden, Morgan and Andy Priaulx tried to get round the first corner three abreast. Morgan and Priaulx made contact, both slewing across the track, and several cars had to take evasive action.

Among them, Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith and Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook lost the chance of strong races when they collected advertising hoardings on the front of their cars and had to pit to have them removed. Morgan continued while Priaulx collected up his first spin, only to be collected in a secondary incident and pit with damage.

Then on lap seven, Honda Racing Team’s Neal attempted to pass Smith at the complex and made contact with the Team BMR man. Smith caught the slide, but Neal pitted with a front left puncture and retired. The ailing Volkswagen of Smith dropped down to 11th by the flag.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram also retired in the pits with damage on lap eight, and after that all eyes were on the lead battle.

Collard furiously flashed his lights at Plato on numerous occasions to try and distract him, but the double champion had enough in hand to hold him off by less than half a second.