Plato Wraps Up Title With Race Two Win
Jason Plato led another light-to-flag victory today and with it took the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship title with just one race remaining in the season.
Starting from pole Plato made a brilliant getaway, just like race one, and never looked back. The task was made some what easier by the disappointment of Shedden who came down the pit lane at the end of the green flag lap with a reported driveshaft problem and was unable to start the race.
That left a gap alongside Plato which gave MacDowell a clean run into the first corner and capitalised on that by moving up to 2nd ahead of championship contender, Matt Neal.
It wouldn’t take Neal long to regain the place and he did so at Druids. The touring car rookie left the door open and Neal duly obliged to move back into 2nd.
Meanwhile a collision between Forster and Kaye further down the field brought out the safety car which bunched up the field and gave Plato it all to do once again but a perfect restart ensured that he would cross over the line with a second lead over his closest rival.
Plato only needed to take a podium in race two to secure the title but he did it in style by leading his Chevrolet Cruze to the win and his 60th win of his career, equalling Andy Rouse’s all time record.
Collard and O’Neill came home in 3rd and 4th ahead of the LPG-powered Ford Focus of Tom Chilton. Kane, Jordan, Jackson, Nash and Neate rounded out the top 10.
Sam Tordoff did well to finish in 11th and did so by passing Ben Collins in the final few laps of the race.
Full race results can be found here.
Photo Credit: btcc.net
James Mappin
