Jason Plato secured his fourth victory of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship with a controlled drive during round 22 of the season at Rockingham.
From Pole Position, the #99 MG KX Momentum Racing driver made the best start to lead away from the line and was never challenged as he pulled away from the chasing pack.
Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden completed the podium finishers while in the Championship, Shedden has moved to within five points of Matt Neal while Plato is 23 behind the #1 Honda Yuasa Racing Team driver.
At the start, fourth place starter Mat Jackson made a flying start in the Redstone Racing NGTC Ford Focus ST and moved into second by the time the field arrived at Deene but was soon demoted to fourth by Jordan and Shedden.
The top four then started to pull away from the rest of the field, which was initially led by Andy Neate in the sister MG before both Rob Collard and Neal found a way past the #44 MG6 driver.
The main incidents involved the two Smiths. Aron Smith saw his race end in the gravel after seven laps after Jeff lost the #55 Pirtek Racing Honda Civic under braking and collided with the #5 Redstone Racing Ford Focus while five laps later, J. Smith was out after a spin and collided with the barrier.
Rob Austin was also involved in an incident during the race, as he tried to pass Neal and collided with the Honda and putting both of them into a spin, which Neal held but Austin dropped back to 14th.
At the flag, Plato took the victory from Jordan and Shedden with Jackson and Collard rounding out the top five. The top ten was completed by Neal, Neate, Tom Onslow-Cole, Austin and Nick Foster.
The point’s positions were completed by Frank Wrathall, Dave Newsham, Chris James, debutant Howard Fuller and Tony Hughes.
Round 23 gets underway at 13:50 on ITV4, ITV4 HD and itv.com/btcc.