Jason Plato has won the final race of the day at Thruxton, beating Mat Jackson and Tom Boardman who completed the podium. Plato started the race from second behind poleman Boardman but got off to a much better start to lead every lap of the race.
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Mat Jackson finished in second after a superb getaway from the grid. Despite pressuring Plato for the entirety of the race the airwaves driver was unable to find a way past and had to settle for his fourth podium of the year.
Tom Boardman started the race from pole position, having finished the second race in ninth, but was beaten away from the line by both Plato and Jackson. He was also slow at the restart after the safety car period, dropping a long way back from Jackson in front which hampered his challenge for second and put him under further pressure from behind. However the Lancashire driver held on to finish in third position and take the first podium of his career in the main class of the series.
James Nash continued his consistent run of form so far this year to take fourth – after also having started from fourth. The Triple Eight driver therefore leaves Thruxton having lost the points lead to Matt Neal, but remains in contention in third overall.
Nash had to defend hard from Alex MacDowall after the safety car period but the Chevrolet driver would ultimately lose out, dropping several positions as a result of the fierce battling for position. Matt Neal took the chance to leap in front of Gordon Shedden and MacDowall on the following lap, whilst Shedden made his move one lap later. The Honda duo would hold these positions until the end of the race to take fifth and sixth and extend their commanding lead in the team’s championship.
Andrew Jordan, who lost several positions when he went wide on lap 5, also benefitted from MacDowall dropping back and he finished in seventh. The Pirtek Racing driver had earlier had a scare when he ran wide at the first turn – whilst in front of him Tom Chilton had an even scarier incident as he collected the barriers hard in his own accident and caused the safety car to come out on track.
Chevrolet’s MacDowall was able to hold on to eighth, finishing just in front of Tony Gilham in the brightly-coloured Vauxhall Vectra. Tom Onslow-Cole took the final point for tenth in the ever-improving AmD Golf on a weekend which usurped the team’s previous best just two weeks prior.
Just outside the points there was an 11th placed finish for Jeff Smith after race-long battles with Andy Neate, Rob Collard and Paul O’Neill, who finished in 12th, 13th and 14th places respectively. Neate himself only just beat Collard across the line after the BMW driver got a poor exit out of the final chicane on the final lap.