Jason Plato took a second victory of the day at Snetterton, as he battled his way back past second placed man Colin Turkington with Gordon Shedden completing the podium.
Round 17 of the championship was just as enthralling as the day’s earlier race, with incidents aplenty throughout the field.
As the race started, Turkington was able to do what he missed out on in race one and overtake the MG of Plato – who was carrying 45 kilograms of ballast following his earlier success – into Riches to lead the pack. However, behind them there was contact almost immediately as Alain Menu, who had run wide on the exit of the first corner, brought the rear of his car across the front of Adam Morgan’s WIX Racing Mercedes and found himself sliding into the barrier on the inside of the circuit, bringing his second race two exit in as many race weekends.
With Menu’s car stricken at the side of the circuit, the Safety Car made an appearance and remained in place until the end of lap four, with the race distance increased to 15 laps. Turkington tried to make a break as the race resumed, but Plato stayed with him as the front two again raced away at the front.
Almost immediately however there was contact, as Andrew Jordan – who had made up six places from his grid slot – pushed Rob Collard wide through Williams onto the main straight. That allowed Jack Goff to close up on the pair, and as they went to turn into Brundle three-abreast, Collard was squeezed by the two on either side of him and Jordan was shot off onto the grass, giving him more ground to make up once again.
One lap later Shedden showed that trio how overtaking into the corner should be done, with a brave move on the outside of Morgan for fourth place.
Plato had looked racey just before the Safety Car was deployed, and after pursuing Turkington from the restart, taking a look up the inside into Brundle on lap eight, he passed the championship leader into Montreal at the start of lap nine to regain first place. Shedden had made similar inroads on teammate Matt Neal, and a couple of seconds further back made the same move to climb into the podium positions.
EBay Motors driver Turkington ensured that Plato worked for his win as he stayed with the MG until two laps from the end, but after feigning an overtake he dropped away, leaving the double-champion to claim his 13th win at Snetterton, the site of his first victory in the series.
With Turkington second and Shedden third, Neal came home in fourth – another welcome result for the Honda driver – ahead of Morgan who was a distant but impressive fifth. Mat Jackson led home teammate Fabrizio Giovanardi for sixth and seventh, while eighth-placed man Aron Smith will start from pole for race three after his number was drawn. Sam Tordoff recovered to ninth after his race one disaster, with the third MG of Marc Hynes in 10th.
Andrew Jordan finished the race in 15th after recovering a few positions after his off, but the decision was taken to rule him out from racing in the final event of the day following an accident on Saturday.
Top ten result
POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
1 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 15 | 33:00.807 | 1:58.321 | 1 | |
2 | 5 | I | Colin TURKINGTON | eBay Motors | BMW 125i M Sport | 15 | 1.608 | 1:58.316 | 2 | |
3 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 15 | 6.506 | 1:58.480 | 7 | |
4 | 4 | M | Matt NEAL | Honda Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Tourer | 15 | 8.072 | 1:59.097 | 3 | |
5 | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 15 | 9.353 | 1:58.821 | 4 | |
6 | 6 | I | Mat JACKSON | Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 11.109 | 1:59.085 | 8 | |
7 | 7 | I | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI | Airwaves Racing | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 11.977 | 1:59.342 | 13 | |
8 | 40 | I | Árón SMITH | CHROME Edition Restart Racing | Volkswagen CC | 15 | 14.334 | 1:59.403 | 6 | |
9 | 88 | M | Sam TORDOFF | MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save | MG6 | 15 | 18.072 | 1:58.343 | 31 | |
10 | 888 | M | Marc HYNES | Quantel Bifold Racing | MG6 | 15 | 20.556 | 1:59.211 | 18 |