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Brands Hatch BTCC: Andrew Jordan resists Jason Plato in opener

Reigning champion Andrew Jordan won the opening round of the 2014 British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch

Jordan narrowly held the lead away from pole as Jason Plato's MG moved to defend from the fast-starting rear-wheel-drive WSR BMW of Colin Turkington.

Eurotech Honda Civic driver Jordan caught a slide at Paddock before he and Plato drew away from the field.

Although Plato remained close throughout the race, he never looked like making a move and Jordan started his title defence with a lights-to-flag victory.

Turkington held third as far as Clearways on lap one, when Matt Neal forced his way by with his Honda Civic Tourer. They were joined by Gordon Shedden in the second Honda estate and the trio battled it out for the early part of the race.

Just after half-distance Shedden passed Turkington at Clearways, with the help of another nudge. The BMW then fell back, being overtaken by Rob Austin's Audi.

Austin closed on the Honda duo, but the trio were almost 10 seconds down on Jordan, with Neal giving the Civic Tourer a podium on its debut.

Despite defending robustly from team-mate Rob Collard and the BMR VW Passat of Aron Smith, Turkington (with his bodywork flapping) could not hold them off and ended up eighth.

BTCC rookie Tom Ingram made a poor start from sixth on the grid, but held off the MG of Sam Tordoff for ninth in his Speedworks Toyota Avensis.

Motorbase's difficult weekend continued. Mat Jackson made it up to sixth early on, only to be pushed off by Smith at Clearways. The Ford Focus driver recovered to 15th.

That was one place behind Fabrizio Giovanardi, the 2007 and '08 champion only making it to 14th after throttle issues limited him to 18th in qualifying.

Returning former champion Alain Menu's race was ruined when he lost his BMR VW Passat at Paddock on the opening lap. He then pitted before going back out to finish 28th.

Results - 24 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Andrew Jordan        Eurotech Honda     19m46.613s
 2.  Jason Plato          MG                    +0.536s
 3.  Matt Neal            Honda                 +9.396s
 4.  Gordon Shedden       Honda                 +9.806s
 5.  Rob Austin           RAR Audi             +10.156s
 6.  Rob Collard          WSR BMW              +13.133s
 7.  Aron Smith           BMR VW               +14.522s
 8.  Colin Turkington     WSR BMW              +15.341s
 9.  Tom Ingram           Speedworks Toyota    +15.736s
10.  Sam Tordoff          MG                   +16.188s
11.  Nick Foster          WSR BMW              +16.521s
12.  Jack Goff            BMR Vauxhall         +16.761s
13.  Adam Morgan          Ciceley Mercedes     +19.412s
14.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Motorbase Ford       +20.231s
15.  Mat Jackson          Motorbase Ford       +21.881s
16.  Warren Scott         BMR Vauxhall         +22.085s
17.  Dave Newsham         AmD Ford             +24.080s
18.  Hunter Abbott        RAR Audi             +24.545s
19.  Jack Clarke          Motorbase Ford       +31.842s
20.  Glynn Geddie         UA Toyota            +33.914s
21.  Simon Belcher        Speedworks Toyota    +43.068s
22.  Lea Wood             Houseman Toyota      +43.703s
23.  Martin Depper        Eurotech Honda         +1 lap
24.  Robb Holland         Rotek Audi             +1 lap
25.  Aiden Moffat         Moffat Chevrolet       +1 lap
26.  Ollie Jackson        Welch Proton           +1 lap
27.  Chris Stockton       BTC Chevrolet          +1 lap
28.  Alain Menu           BMR VW                +3 laps

Retirements:

     James Cole           UA Toyota             14 laps
     Marc Hynes           MG                     0 laps

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