Tom Chilton has won the first race of the day at Silverstone, heading team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole accross the line. The two Team Aon drivers had been running nose-to-tail for much of the race and at the mid-way point the lead changed hands. Jason Plato finished in third to open up his lead at the top of the championship. Plato’s team-mate Alex MacDowall followed him home in fourth.
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Tom Onslow-Cole led from pole for the first half of the race, sustaining constant pressure from Chilton behind. Then on lap 12 along the start/finish straight Onslow-Cole lost a fraction of speed which allowed his team-mate to pass. Although Onslow-Cole blamed this on a gearshifting problem he had pulled clearly off the racing line to allow his team-mate to pass.
Jason Plato, who finished in third, had briefly challenged Onslow-Cole’s second position, even pulling alongside on the exit of Brooklands on lap 12. However the pace of the Ford Focus on the exit of the corner was too great for Plato and he eventually had to settle for third.
Alex MacDowall finished in fourth, having put some heavy pressure on team-mate Plato in front at various stages of the race. He too had to fight hard to keep his position as Andrew Jordan kept him honest. Jordan would eventually finish fifth, unable to find a way past MacDowall.
Rob Collard had a relatively quiet race to sixth position, unable to keep up with those in front. Paul O’Neill was hot on his tail in seventh, whilst further back is where most of the action took place.
Matt Neal eventually finished the race in eighth – meaning he has lost further ground to points leader Plato. He had an eventful race which saw him battling hard with the Airwaves BMW’s of Steven Kane and Mat Jackson – making contact with the former several times early in the race. He eventually passed Kane again on the penultimate lap when Kane lost rear-end grip into the final corner. Kane went on to finish in ninth, whilst Gordon Shedden was tenth after a difficult start to the race which meant he had to fight back in the second half.
James Nash took 11th and Tom Boardman finished in 12th. Mat Jackson, with a car that was visibly not quite driving in a straight line, was 13th after earlier contact with Neal dropped him down the order.
On his return to the BTCC Phil Glew took fourteenth in the YourRacingCar SEAT Leon. Glew is still getting to grips with the car, which is running the new NGTC engine, but had a good race to make up 6 places from his grid position.
The only retirement of the race was David Pinkney who appeared to suffer a mechanical problem to his NGTC-engine powered Vauxhall Vectra.
Shaun Hollamby has been forced to miss all of today’s races due to engine problems which cannot be repaired at the circuit due to a lack of spares. Martin Depper, who suffered a large shunt yesterday in practice, was able to get out in a repaired car and finished in last position.