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Sunday, 10 October 2010 18:25 |
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Page 1 of 3  Jason Plato closes in on title after Race 1, then secures British Touring Car Championship title with Race 2 victory to equal wins record, Andrew Jordan wins race three in a Vauxhall Vectra.
Race 1 - Plato closes on title with victory
 Jason Plato has taken a huge step towards the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship title with victory in the first of today’s three races at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent.
Plato, starting from pole position, led all the way and also set a new race lap record to earn a bonus point, despite his Chevrolet Cruze being laden with the maximum 45kgs of success ballast.
Notably, it is the 59th win of his BTCC career, putting him now just one shy of Andy Rouse's all time record of 60.
Finishing second and third were Honda team-mates Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal in their Honda Civics. Neal had started from second on the grid but dropped to fourth away from the grid behind a fast starting Shedden and Mat Jackson’s Airwaves BMW.
But Jackson spun mid-race and dropped to an eventual 13th, gifting Neal an easy third.
The result means Plato leads the championship by an extended margin of 25 points from Neal with Shedden a further two points behind. Plato only needs to be 18 points clear of Neal after race two to provisionally secure the crown…
But Plato said: "Let's not have any talk of the title yet. There's still a lot of hard work and a lot of racing to be done. All my energies were focused on the start and it paid off. I pushed to build a lead then saw Gordon was catching me a little bit so decided it was time to push again and demoralise him a bit."
But it’s all over for Tom Onslow-Cole, his Team Aon Ford Focus broke down, spelling an end to his title hopes.
He continues to lead the Independent Drivers standings but by the reduced margin of 13 points from his team-mate Tom Chilton who has moved up to second ahead of Airwaves BMW’s Steven Kane.
Jackson’s spin has cost him dear for it means he can no longer win the Independents title.
However, both the HiQ and Independent teams' titles have been provisionally secured, in favour of the Honda Racing Team and Team respectively.
Elsewhere, Plato’s team-mate Alex MacDowall fought back past James Nash’s Triple Eight run Vauxhall Vectra to finish where he started in fourth but in the closing stages was under mounting pressure from WSR BMW driver Robert Collard who took fifth, the highest placed independent runner.
Notably, MacDowall’s result moves him two points past Andrew Jordan into tenth place in the table.
Paul O’Neill determinedly fought back past Chilton in his older BTC spec Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Honda Integra to claim sixth. Chilton was seventh ahead of Nash, Jordan in his Pirtek Racing Vectra and Tom Boardman, tenth in his Special Tuning UK SEAT Leon.
Eleventh place for Kane means he is still in the running for the Independents crown, now 14 points behind leader Onslow-Cole.
He headed four BWW drivers, WSR’s Andy Neate and team-mates Jackson and, making his BTCC debut, Ben Collins across the line.
Fellow debutant Sam Tordoff had run just outside the top ten in his Triple Eight Vectra but fell to an eventual 17th after serving a pit lane drive through penalty for excessive use of the track’s run-off areas.
Race 1 results:
| Pos. |
N° |
Class. |
Driver |
Car |
Lap |
Gap |
Best laps |
| 1 |
2 |
|
Jason Plato |
Chevrolet Cruze |
24 |
|
49.021 |
| 2 |
52 |
|
Gordon Shedden |
Honda Civic |
24 |
+2.154 |
49.149 |
| 3 |
4 |
|
Matt Neal |
Honda Civic |
24 |
+2.750 |
49.259 |
| 4 |
20 |
|
Alex MacDowall |
Chevrolet Cruze |
24 |
+4.626 |
49.468 |
| 5 |
6 |
I |
Robert Collard |
BMW 320si E90 |
24 |
+4.886 |
49.186 |
| 6 |
29 |
I |
Paul O'Neill |
Honda Integra |
24 |
+11.276 |
49.385 |
| 7 |
23 |
I |
Tom Chilton |
Ford Focus ST |
24 |
+11.871 |
49.546 |
| 8 |
14 |
I |
James Nash |
Vauxhall Vectra |
24 |
+13.002 |
49.457 |
| 9 |
77 |
I |
Andrew Jordan |
Vauxhall Vectra |
24 |
+14.268 |
49.589 |
| 10 |
22 |
I |
Tom Boardman |
SEAT Leon |
24 |
+16.139 |
49.558 |
| 11 |
11 |
I |
Steven Kane |
BMW 320si E90 |
24 |
+16.248 |
49.533 |
| 12 |
44 |
I |
Andy Neate |
BMW 320si E90 |
24 |
+16.789 |
49.707 |
| 13 |
5 |
I |
Mat Jackson |
BMW 320si E90 |
24 |
+19.903 |
49.223 |
| 14 |
12 |
I |
Ben Collins |
BMW 320si E90 |
24 |
+24.614 |
49.753 |
| 15 |
43 |
I |
Lea Wood |
Honda Integra |
24 |
+27.637 |
49.994 |
| 16 |
46 |
I |
James Kaye |
Honda Integra |
24 |
+28.734 |
50.048 |
| 17 |
16 |
I |
Sam Tordoff |
Vauxhall Vectra |
24 |
+36.053 |
49.790 |
| 18 |
27 |
I |
Martin Johnson |
Vauxhall Astra Coupe |
24 |
+42.227 |
50.928 |
| 19 |
28 |
I |
John George |
Honda Integra |
24 |
+42.476 |
50.685 |
| 20 |
37 |
I |
Arthur Forster |
BMW 320si E90 |
24 |
+44.372 |
50.128 |
| 21 |
99 |
I |
Shaun Hollamby |
VW Golf MK5 |
23 |
+1 lap |
50.910 |
| Not classified |
|
21 |
I |
Tom Onslow-Cole |
Ford Focus ST |
8 |
+16 laps |
49.532 |
|
30 |
I |
Martin Depper |
BMW 320si E90 |
6 |
+18 laps |
50.679 |
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