Tom Boardman has provisionally won the final race at Knockhill in the British Touring Car Championship – although there were several incidents attributed to the Lancashire racer that raise doubts over his win.
Jason Plato had originally led the race away from pole position but Boardman was close behind throughout the opening three laps. Going through Duffus on the fourth lap, Boardman made contact with the Chevrolet in front, pitching Plato off the track and into the barriers. Plato was visibly angry after the incident and it marks his fourth DNF of the season.
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Boardman caused another controversial incident on lap 6. As the safety car pulled off the circuit, Boardman was left to control the restart pace going into the hairpin. The STR driver was particularly slow, causing a number of drivers in the midfield to crash into each other. Árón Smith was one of the victims – his Vauxhall suffering extensive front-end damage as he ploughed into team-mate James Nash. As a result the safety car was deployed once again to clear up Smith’s car.
Rob Collard finished second for the second time this year – unable to find a way past the STR Seat in front despite being faster through the corners towards the end of the race.
Third was Frank Wrathall who scored his second podium result of the day, completing a remarkable weekend for Wrathall and the Dynojet team.
Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden finished the race in fourth and fifth – although both works Honda drivers had their work cur out towards the end to hold position, with Tom Chilton applying plenty of pressure towards the end of the race. Chilton had been running in third until he went wide onto the back straight, dropping to sixth and losing out to both Honda’s.
Andrew Jordan worked his way into seventh, his best result of a difficult weekend. Tom Onslow-Cole took his first points of the weekend with an eighth placed finish, followed by Nick Foster and Alex MacDowall.
It was another dismal race for Mat Jackson, who retired on lap 21 when running in seventh having started from the very back. Jackson ran into the back of Chilton heading into the Real Radio hairpin, suffering terminal damage to the front of his Ford Focus. Paul O’Neill also failed to finish – his race lasting just one lap before he limped into the pits to retire.