Jason Plato secured his second win of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship in round 15 of the season, coming out on top of a frantic race which saw a double Safety Car period.
His second victory in the MG means that he has now won 70 races in the BTCC and has closed the gap to Championship leader Matt Neal to 29 points heading into the summer break.
At the start, Nick Foster took advantage of the Rear Wheel Drive BMW to lead into the first corner with his eBay Motors team-mate Rob Collard moving into second ahead of the MG of Andy Neate. Neate responded straight away and retook the position at the second corner. Further back, Tony Gilham ended up in the gravel at the first corner and this saw the deployment of the Safety Car.
After a single lap under the Safety car, Foster pulled out a slight gap over Neate while third place Tom Onslow-Cole slid wide which allowed the Dynojet Toyota Avensis of Frank Wrathall into third.
Lining up ninth, Matt Neal soon put a car between himself and team-mate Gordon Shedden but the following lap, Shedden was on the tail of Neal as he moved into ninth at Tower. Up at the front, Neate has closed up on Foster and was looking for a way to move into the lead.
Foster lost the lead the following lap and soon dropped down the order and finished the lap in eighth, while Wrathall had recovered back to the podium positions.
The Safety Car was redeployed at the end of lap six after the BINZ Racing Vauxhall Vectra of Lea Wood and Liam Griffin in the #6 Redstone Racing Ford Focus came together at Tower and the front of the Focus went up in flames.
It took six laps for the clear up of the accident at Tower to be sorted and once the race went live, it turned into a 7 lap sprint to the finish.
Neate up at the front pulled away while behind, everything was chance as Plato took P3 from Wrathall, and Onslow-Cole took advantage of Plato making his move to take P4 from the Dynojet driver.
Collard dropped down the order the following lap as Plato moved into second and a MG KX Momentum Racing 1, 2 while both Neal and Shedden were on the climb, Neal had climbed to fourth while Shedden was seventh.
Neate was under pressure from Plato and he cut the chicane defending his position and the following lap, Plato made his move on Neate at Tower, while Onslow-Cole, Jordan, Neal and Collard were all in contention for the victory.
Neate lost another two positions before the end of the 15th lap and the following lap, the battle for third had changed as the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic on Andrew Jordan had moved into third while Neal was having to force his way past Collard, and the penultimate lap saw Neal force his way past Neate for fourth. Neate then dropped down the order, while Neal closed up on Jordan.
At the end of lap 18, Plato took win number two of the season from Onslow-Cole and Jordan, with Neal and Collard completing the top five. Shedden worked his way into sixth, ahead of Austin, Pole sitter Foster, Neate and Dan Welch. The rest of the points went to Jeff Smith, Mat Jackson, Paul O’Neill, Adam Morgan and Frank Wrathall.
Heading into the seven week break, Neal has a one point advantage over Shedden with Plato 29 points behind Neal. Collard and Jordan are equal fourth, Collard getting fourth thanks to his Brands Hatch victory. Collard and Jordan are 50 points off the Championship lead.