Jason Plato cruises to victory in shortened race one

Jason Plato took victory in a shortened first race at Oulton Park as JWT Performance’s Stewart Lines crashed in to the pit wall, forcing the race to end as a result of damage to the barriers.

The Team BMR driver held his lead from the front of the grid, blocking a fast starting Andy Priaulx from the third spot, and never looked back from there, taking a dominant win and the championship lead in the process.

Having been held up off the line by Plato, Priaulx found himself back behind the Honda of Matt Neal. The three-time World Champion would stay behind Neal for the remainder of the race, with a strong defensive drive from the Honda driver keeping the late race charge from Priaulx at bay.

With Neal and Priaulx joining Plato on the podium, there was a grand total of nine touring car titles between the top three finishers.

Andrew Jordan was able to hold on to the back of both Neal and Priaulx in the early stages, but soon dropped back on the softer Dunlop rubber.

Defensive drivers were the order of the day from the Honda team, as championship leader Gordon Shedden struggled with the success ballast on the softer tyres. Shedden’s wing mirrors were full of Aron Smith’s Volkswagen and Jack Goff’s MG for the majority of the race, with Smith managing to find a way past the Honda at Old Hall on the ninth lap.

Shedden managed to keep Goff at bay to hold his sixth position, with Tom Ingram, Sam Tordoff and Dave Newsham rounding out the top ten.

The field were relatively well behaved during the opening race, with the only incidents coming in the form of Alex Martin and Simon Belcher on the exit of the Island hairpin and Aiden Moffat and Jeff Smith coming together in the entrance to the same corner, before the race ending incident at the pit wall.

Contact between Alex Martin and Stewart Lines saw the latter ending up being sent straight in to the pit wall, causing significant damage and forcing the organisers to throw the red flag two laps from the end.