Tom Onslow-Cole took his second win of the season in race one at Oulton Park, withstanding pressure from second placed Gordon Shedden throughout the race. Completing the podium in third was Rob Collard, who came close to finishing second with a strong drive in his WSR BMW.
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Team Aon’s Onslow-Cole was nenver headed during the race as he converted his pole position into his first on-the track victory of 2010, after he previously inherited the win at Brands Hatch when his team-mate Tom Chilton was disqualified. Finishing in second was Gordon Shedden, who was unable to find the pace to pass Onslow-Cole.
WSR driver Rob Collard finished in third having started from sixth on the grid. At the beginning of the race he quickly passed the cars of Chilton and Alex MacDowall on the opening lap to latch onto the tail of Jason Plato. By the end of the second lap he was past Plato and pressurising Shedden, which he continued to do for most of the rest of the race, with the duo running side-by-side on several occasions. Shedden however drove defensively enough to retain the position around a circuit that he loves.
Controversially finishing in fourth was Airwaves BMW’s Mat Jackson, who took the position with only 3 laps to go. Heading into Cascades Jackson tagged the back of Plato’s car and sent him drifting off the circuit, dropping him down to 10th position. Jackson was handed two penalty points on his competition licence, but allowed to keep the position. After the race a disappointed Plato laid the blame entirely at Jackson’s door, and told btcc.net: “Mat just tried a move that was never on. Showing your nose and then hoping is not how to do it and I’m just very disappointed in him. I know I’m hard to overtake but… I’d have thought he’d know better by now. It’s achieved nothing except getting me out of the way.”
Tom Chilton finished in fifth after race-long battles with MacDowall and Jackson, with Steven Kane having a good drive through the field from 11th on the grid to finish in 6th. The second Chevrolet of MacDowall was seventh after he lost out to Collard early on and then Jackson and Chilton after he ran wide whilst the BMW driver slipped through at Old Hall corner. MacDowall had previously been running right on Plato’s tail, even making contact with his more experienced team-mate at one point.
Matt Neal took the championship lead by finishing in eighth, outscoring championship rival Plato by virtue of his incident with Jackson. James Nash finished in ninth, whilst Plato rounded out the top 10 after he rejoined following his earlier incident.
Andy Neate just missed out on the points with an 11th placed finish.
Elsewhere there was more bad luck for Andrew Jordan, who was forced out early on with yet more engine issues that have blighted his progress all weekend. Tom Boardman was an early retirement due to a driveshaft failure, whilst Matt Hamilton spun into the gravel early on bringing out the first safety car. Paul O’Neill’s run of poor luck continued as he was unable to start the race due to a late gearbox change on his Honda Integra.