MG’s Jason Plato kept his slim British Touring Car Championship title hopes alive with a controlling win in a very wet first race of the day at Brands Hatch, finishing ahead of Honda’s Gordon Shedden and MG team-mate Sam Tordoff.
Click here for the full Round 28 Results.
Plato led away at the start of the race and was never headed during the 17-lap encounter. The MG driver keeps his slim championship hopes alive by closing the gap to points leader Andrew Jordan by 37 points, with 44 points still up for grabs.
By finishing in second, having passed Tordoff on the opening lap of the race, Shedden also remains in championship contender by finishing ahead of Jordan. Shedden is thus Jordan’s main rival heading into race two, 29 points adrift of the Pirtek Racing driver.
Tordoff scored his fifth podium finish of the season in third, ahead of Airwaves Racing’s Tom Onslow-Cole who made it past Jordan on the seventh lap at Clearways, after the championship leader held a slide exiting Graham Hill bend. Jordan held on to finish in fifth and limit the loss to his championship lead.
Sixth went to Honda’s Matt Neal with a sensational drive from 16th on the grid. Neal therefore keeps his increasingly slim title hopes alive heading into the penultimate round of the season, despite dropping to third in the standings.
Rob Collard finished in seventh and was the only eBay Motors driver who finished the race. Colin Turkington, who started in sixth, spun at the bottom of Paddock Hill bend and was collected by team-mate Nick Foster, forcing both drivers out of the race.
Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan dropped from fifth on the grid to finish in eighth as the top Toyota driver. Airwaves Racing team-mates Mat Jackson and Árón Smith completed the top ten.
Speedworks’ Dave Newsham, who finished in 11th, had been running around eighth for the first half of the race, before slipping down the order.
Victory in the Jack Sear’s Trophy went to Shaun Hollamby on the final appearance of AmD Tuning’s Volkswagen Golf, with his 15th-placed finish also Hollamby’s first-ever points in the BTCC.
A grief safety car period was required between laps four and five after WIX Racing’s Rob Austin went off into the gravel at Paddock Hill bend.
Also enduring spins and off-track excursions during the race were Frank Wrathall, Warren Scott, who went off at Clearways and Ollie Jackson, who made contact with Excoet Racing’s Jake Hill, spinning him out of tenth.
Round 29 takes place at 14:22 BST.