Mat Jackson has taken victory in a controversial final British Touring Car race at Donington Park – with second-placed Jason Plato pushing Gordon Shedden off the road at the final corner.
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The reverse grid for the race meant that the two Pirtek Motorsport drivers of Jeff Smith and Andrew Jordan would start from the front. However Smith bogged down at the start and was swamped by half of the pack, whilst Jordan had a huge slide at the first corner, having initially taken the lead. This left Dave Newsham as the leader for the first two laps.
Rob Collard, who found himself in second having started in eighth, began to pressure Newsham for the lead. However on lap three the WSR driver went wide at the old hairpin and as he rejoined the circuit he caused his team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole to take to the grass in avoidance. The chaos continued at the next corner as Jordan, looking to take advantage of the situation, went into the side of Matt Neal and both drivers spun. It would be the end of the race for Neal as his car became beeched in the McLeans gravel trap.
With the safety car out to allow for the recovery of Neal’s car, Jackson found himself in the lead having passed Newsham in the chaos around him.
With so much going on around him Plato, who started down in 17th, was up to ninth and continued to gain positions, passing Jeff Smith on lap seven and Tony Gilham, who managed to avoid all of the incidents around him, on lap ten. Having worked his way up to fourth, Plato followed Shedden past Collard and it took him until the final corner of the final lap to make his move on Shedden. Into the braking zone for the chicane the MG driver appeared to push the Honda driver off the circuit to take second, with Shedden finishing in third.
Gilham took a career-best result of fourth, with Collard just behind him. Jeff Smith finished in sixth, ahead of his team-mate Jordan in seventh. Frank Wrathall scored his best result of the season with an eighth placed finish, whilst Daniel Welch and Tom Onslow-Cole completed the top ten.
Andy Neate failed to finish the race after experiencing a big impact with the barriers on the start straight on the second lap. He completed a handful more laps after his Triple Eight team attempted some repairs to his car.
Three drivers failed to start the race – John Thorne withdrew at the end of Saturday due to technical problems. Rob Austin and Ollie Jackson both suffered engine problems on raceday and took no further part after race one, the latter in order to preserve the engine for Thruxton.