Photo: PSP Images

Mat Jackson puts on race-long fight in Knockhill Race 3 to take fourth win of the year

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Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson was forced to defend from start to finish to take his fourth win of the 2016 British Touring Car Championship season, fighting off the BMWs of Rob Collard and later Sam Tordoff to win the third and final race of the day at Knockhill.

Jackson began the race from pole position for the reversed top six grid at the Scottish circuit, but the safety car was out on lap one as Ashley Sutton’s MG had been spun around and was beached in the gravel, requiring recovery.

When the race restarted, Jackson was fighting off West Surrey Racing BMW’s Rob Collard, who was one of only three drivers running on the favoured Dunlop soft tyre for the final race, with Team BMR Subaru driver Colin Turkington right behind them.

The battle ended on lap eight, when Turkington made contact with the rear of Collard’s BMW at Clark’s curve, with Collard’s BMW terminally damaged and with Turkington’s Subaru falling to the back of the pack, going on to finish in 24th, well outside of the points.

The lead battle now was between Jackson and the two team-mates of his previous opponents, Tordoff and Jason Plato, with Gordon Shedden now the best-placed of the soft-shod competitors.

Jackson was forced to put on a wily defence at the final corner on every lap with Tordoff trying every which way to get past the Ford driver, but to no avail.

Jackson went on to win the race by two-tenths of a second over Tordoff, with Plato on the podium for third time today.

Shedden finished fourth ahead of Honda team-mate Matt Neal, with Rob Austin finishing sixth for Handy Motorsport in their Toyota Avensis ahead of the two Mercedes A-Classes of Adam Morgan and Aiden Moffat, with Motorbase’s Andrew Jordan and West Surrey Racing’s Jack Goff completing the top ten.

Tordoff leaves Knockhill with the lead of the drivers’ championship, nine points ahead of Honda’s Matt Neal, with Rob Collard dropping to third, 32 points adrift.

The next round of the championship takes place at the Rockingham circuit in two weeks’ time.