Plato Edges Closer To Title With Lights-to-Flag Victory
Jason Plato gave a brilliant display for his fans today in race one of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship as he took a light-to-flag victory in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze to open up a 25 point lead in the championship with just two races to go.
Starting from pole position, Jason made an exemplar start to open up a one second lead after just the first two laps despite carrying the 45kgs of success ballast which is given to the driver leading the championship.
Matt Neal started the race from 2nd on the grid but he got swamped in the opening laps which dropped him to 4th behind his team-mate, Gordon Shedden and the BMW of Mat Jackson.
A spin for Jackson early in the race promoted Neal up to 3rd but it wasn’t enough to deny Plato of maximum points in the race.
It was also a disaster for Onslow-Cole as a terminal fault resulted in the LPG-powered Ford Focus coming to rest on the back straight after reporting losing all drive to the wheels. That was a shame for the youngster who had a chance at the title going into the race but was up against it as he started from 10th on the grid.
Onslow-Cole’s misfortune also allowed both Kane and Chilton to close the gap in the Independants Championship. Chilton’s 7th place finish was enough for him to leapfrog Steven Kane into 2nd and lie just 12 points behind his team-mate.
Elsewhere, MacDowell did well to come home in 4th after fighting off the challenges from Collard with O’Neill, Chilton, Nash, Jordan and Boardman rounding out the top 10.
Collins managed to make up nine places during race one to finish in 12th after starting from 22nd on the grid.
Drivers Championship Standings
Jason Plato – 242pts
Matt Neal – 217
Gordon Shedden – 215
Tom Onslow-Cole – 200
Independant Drivers Championship Standings
Tom Onslow-Cole – 241
Tom Chilton – 229
Steven Kane – 227
Mat Jackson – 208
Full race results can be found here.
Photo Credit: btcc.net
James Mappin
