Jason Plato has won the first race of the season around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit – beating Andy Rouse’s long standing record of most outright victories in the process.
Plato, who started from third, was in the lead by the second corner after contact between Alex MacDowall and Matt Neal meant that the pole-sitter went out of the race. James Nash drove an excellent race to take a career-best second position, whilst Tom Chilton completed the podium in third.
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Plato has now surpassed Andy Rouse’s record of most wins in the BTCC – taking his win tally to an impressive 61 as he begins to move clear of the former touring car star. It also means that he gets his championship defence off to the best possible start – having won 3 out of the last 4 races around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
Using all of his driving skill to stay out of trouble, Plato avoid the first lap chaos as his team-mate made contact with Honda’s Neal, knocking him into the Druids gravel trap from which he was unable to escape. MacDowall would later receive 3 penalty points on his racing licence and a £1000 fine for the incident and driving standards misdemeanours.
Nash took a career-best second place for 888 Racing with Collins Contractors, driving a clean race to the second step of the podium. Team Aon’s Chilton was third, despite earlier being forced to take to the grass whilst defending his position from MacDowall.
Mat Jackson finished in fourth in his first race in the Airwaves Ford Focus, with MacDowall in fifth. Gordon Shedden was in a determined mood after his accident in practice yesterday and, from the very back of the grid, eventually finished sixth. He was involved in a late-race skirmish with Tom Boardman and contact was made between the duo as Shedden tried to complete the pass, resulting in Boardman having to retire just two laps before the finish.
Paul O’Neill came home in seventh in his first race in the Tech-Speed Chevrolet Cruze. Behind him the top ‘rookie’ was Triple Eight’s Tony Gilham with an impressive eighth on his debut.
Jeff Smith, who made his BTCC debut last year in a one-off entry at Knockhill, took home his first points with a ninth-placed finish. Just behind him David Newsham also scored points on his debut in the Geoff Steel Racing BMW with tenth.
Liam Griffin failed to take the start of his first-ever BTCC race after a bizarre incident with WSR’s Rob Collard on the second green flag lap. The two made contact at Paddock Hill Bend, resulting in damage to the front-left of Griffin’s Airwaves car. After a delayed start Collard was able to start the race, although he would eventually finish last and two laps down. Griffin was instead forced to watch from the sidelines.
Neither of the new Toyota Avensis cars finished the race as both Frank Wrathall and Tony Hughes retired with problems at the mid-distance.