Jason Plato took his 80th victory in the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone with a masterful drive from pole, holding off the Pirtek Honda of championship leader Andrew Jordan and Airwaves’ Aron Smith.
Click here for the full race two results.
Plato faced a much sterner challenge to claim victory in the second race as Jordan hustled and harried the MG driver, and while Jordan briefly held the lead after passing Plato into Becketts, the BTCC veteran regained the lead with a forceful move into Luffield and defended his position to the flag to hold off Jordan.
As was the case in race one, Plato’s lead was challenged – this time by Colin Turkington, who rocketed off the line in his BMW, challenging the MG into Copse before slotting into second.
The safety car once again made an early appearance in the action, after a collision in the middle of the pack involving Rob Austin, Tom Onslow-Cole and Frank Wrathall left the Dynojet driver’s Toyota stranded on the outside of Becketts. Rob Collard dived for the pits from fourth after a fantastic getaway, eventually retiring from the race after an electronics failure having rejoined the action.
That delayed the restart which eventually took place on lap seven, with Plato initially being matched by Turkington. He quickly dropped back however, succumbing once again to the MG of Sam Tordoff. Jordan meanwhile was flying through the pack, picking off Matt Neal on the run out of Copse before following the MG past Turkington and then dispatching of Tordoff himself.
Despite having a healthy advantage over his championship rivals, Jordan continued to attack and fought Plato fairly, eventually settling for second place and opening up his championship advantage to 38 points over Neal and Turkington. Smith made a similarly aggressive charge through the field, but fell a lap or two short of being able to challenge fully for the lead.
Tordoff and Turkington were next up in the running order, with Neal’s strength tested in order to hold onto sixth place. He headed home Gordon Shedden who put in a determined drive to finish seventh, with Dave Newsham, Dan Welch and Mat Jackson completing the top ten.
After surviving the first lap encounter, Howard Fuller finally brought his Team HARD. Vauxhall Insignia home inside the points with a fine 11th place finish, and teammate Aiden Moffat scored his first championship points a day after turning 17, bringing his Volkswagen Passat home in 14th. Lea Wood was once again victorious in the S2000 class, but only after rival Liam Griffin retired with three laps remaining from a points-scoring position.