Jason Plato has taken his battered Chevrolet Cruze to victory in race two at Oulton Park, coming through from tenth on the grid to take the top spot. Matt Neal also had an impressive drive to finish in second from eighth on the grid, whilst early leader Tom Onslow-Cole finished in third.
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Plato’s victory means that he has retaken the lead of the championship, after Neal had earlier gained it after the end of the first race. It also marks Plato’s 55th career win in the championship. Plato had worked his way up to fifth by the end of the opening lap, thanks in part to some contact in front at the hairpin. He then worked his way up to second and passed Onslow-Cole with a robust move on lap 10 that saw him carry front-end damage for the rest of the race. Plato was also given four penalty points on his racing licence for his move on Onslow-Cole and also for an earlier knock into Mat Jackson’s BMW.
“It wasn’t easy – that prang with Tom lost my car a lot of front-end grip for the rest of the race,” said Plato to btcc.net afterwards. “I was also a bit fortunate on the opening lap. A lot of cars got caught up in that tangle in front of me and I guessed correctly to go the long way round and passed four cars in one go. It’s a mega result for everyone in the team as well because they’d had to perform major surgery on the car after race one, fitting a new slave cylinder and master cylinder in the pedal box. A top job.”
Matt Neal’s second place finish minimises the damage to his championship campaign against Plato, with the Honda Racing Team driver less than a second behind by the chequered flag. There was worse luck for his team-mate Gordon Shedden however, as the Scot was forced to retire after two laps with a broken driveshaft. He had been running in second at the time and it means he will start race three towards the back of the grid.
Tom Onslow-Cole held on to finish in third, struggling more with the handling on his Ford Focus as a result of carrying maximum success ballast. Mat Jackson finished in fourth for Airwaves BMW, with team-mate Steven Kane just behind in fifth.
Tom Chilton finished in sixth position, having earlier been involved in close battles with Neal and Kane. The Team Aon driver was involved in an opening lap incident with Rob Collard, when he tagged the rear of the WSR driver which put him into a spin and out of contention in the race. However upon viewing the replays it appears as if Chilton himself was bumped from behind by Jackson.
James Nash finished in seventh position, just ahead of Tom Boardman who had a superb drive from the back of the field following his first race retirement. Alex MacDowall crossed the finish line in ninth, just pipping David Pinkney to the position. It proved to be an extremely worthwhile move for the rookie as it means he will start race three from pole position as a result of the reverse-grid draw.
Pinkney completed the points scoring positions with tenth, whilst Lea Wood just missed out on the points in his damaged Honda Integra in only his fifth BTCC race.