Jason Plato has taken victory from Pole Position in the opening race of the weekend at Rockingham, leading home his old car, piloted by Paul O’Neill for GoMobileUK.com while the podium was completed by Frank Wrathall in the Dynojet Toyota Avensis.
The results have seen Matt Neal move into the lead of the Championship by two points from Honda Racing team-mate Gordon Shedden while the fourth title contender, Mat Jackson in the Airwaves Racing Ford Focus saw his race over after a single lap.
Plato led away from the start while Rob Austin in the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 moved into second place, having used the traction from the Rear Wheel’s to move him ahead of O’Neill. Jackson, from ninth on the grid had also made a good start and he moved ahead of Shedden on the exit of Deene – before the field concertinaed and Neal, Jackson, Shedden and Andrew Jordan all came together, Jackson and Jordan in the Pirtek Racing Vauxhall Vectra retired at the end of the first lap while Shedden and Neal continued.
Later into the opening lap and Austin was spun out by O’Neill but managed to recover the incident and continued but fell to the back of the field – all of this meant that Plato in the RML run Silverline Chevrolet and O’Neill in the Tech-Speed run GoMobileUK.com Chevrolet Cruze had opened up an advantage over the rest of the field, with Shedden leading the rest of the pack, having survived the Yentwood incident.
Dave Newsham in the Special Tuning Racing SEAT Leon and WSR runner Rob Collard caused the Safety Car to be deployed at the midpoint of the race, Newsham had spun off while Collard had tried to pass the Team AON Global Ford Focus on Tom Onslow-Cole – both cars spun but Collard ended up in the gravel. The field closed up and this helped Tom Boardman, who had started twenty third after his six place grid penalty for the incident with Plato at Knockhill, as well as Austin and the second WSR BMW of Nick Foster.
As the race progressed, the leading Chevrolets were pulling away from the chasing pack, and Shedden was fighting a losing battle to hold on to his podium position – and his Championship lead – he would ultimately lose three places on one lap as Wrathall, Neal and Foster all moved ahead of the struggling Scottish driver.
O’Neill took his first Independents victory of the season ahead of Wrathall and Foster, while Triple Eight Racing Engineering with Collins Contractors James Nash closed the gap in the Independents as he finished ninth overall and sixth in the Independents, with Boardman and Austin ahead while the top ten was completed by BTCC debutant Michael Caine, who gave the Airwaves Racing team some reason to be cheerful after Jackson’s earlier retirement – his third on the trot.
Plato heads into the second race having moved to third overall but starting from Pole Position and maximum success ballast, while Neal and Shedden shed their ballast – Shedden heads into race two without any ballast while Neal will be eighteen kilos lighter.