Donington BTCC: Sam Tordoff beats Jason Plato in another MG one-two

Tordoff, with 36kg of success ballast compared to Plato's 45kg, made a good start and was able to slot ahead into Redgate.

In an action-packed race, there was little chance for anyone to challenge Tordoff in the early stages due to a number of incidents.

James Cole's United Autosports Toyota Avensis and Alain Menu's BMR VW Passat both went off on lap one, Menu being narrowly missed by the midfield as he spun back across the pack.

At the restart, Rob Collard - who had risen to third thanks to a fine start - spun off down the Craners, and a multi-car crash at Redgate put Rob Holland and Cole in the wall.

The safety car was called again and stayed out even longer thanks to Ollie Jackson's Welch Proton twice stopping on the track.

When the race finally got under way, Tordoff led Plato and kept him at arm's length to take his first win of 2014.

Collard's mistake, along with errors by Colin Turkington, Matt Neal (under the safety car), and Andrew Jordan (at the Old Hairpin) allowed Gordon Shedden into third.

He kept the MGs in sight, but could not challenge, while Jordan came home fourth.

Neal recovered from his minor mistake to make it three Hondas in the top five, ahead of a subdued Turkington in sixth.

Mat Jackson starred in his Motorbase Ford Focus, climbing from 14th to seventh, ahead of Aron Smith's VW Passat.

The AmD Focus of Dave Newsham also impressed, the former race winner passing Fabrizio Giovanardi at Redgate and then overhauling Tom Ingram in the closing stages to take ninth.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Sam Tordoff          MG                 30m09.940s
 2.  Jason Plato          MG                    +1.028s
 3.  Gordon Shedden       Honda                 +2.493s
 4.  Andrew Jordan        Eurotech Honda        +3.544s
 5.  Matt Neal            Honda                 +4.814s
 6.  Colin Turkington     WSR BMW               +7.145s
 7.  Mat Jackson          Motorbase Ford       +10.668s
 8.  Aron Smith           BMR VW               +12.024s
 9.  Dave Newsham         AmD Ford             +12.726s
10.  Tom Ingram           Speedworks Toyota    +13.365s
11.  Jack Goff            BMR Vauxhall         +14.209s
12.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Motorbase Ford       +16.340s
13.  Glynn Geddie         UA Toyota            +17.974s
14.  Adam Morgan          Ciceley Mercedes     +21.997s
15.  Nick Foster          WSR BMW              +23.180s
16.  Aiden Moffat         Moffat Chevrolet     +24.926s
17.  Lea Wood             Houseman Toyota      +25.399s
18.  Rob Austin           RAR Audi             +27.888s
19.  Daniel Welch         Welch Proton         +29.650s
20.  Simon Belcher        Handy Toyota         +30.708s
21.  Warren Scott         BMR Vauxhall         +30.834s
22.  Martin Depper        Eurotech Honda       +37.039s
23.  Marc Hynes           MG                   +39.640s
24.  Jack Clarke          Motorbase Ford       +40.402s

Retirements:

     Hunter Abbott        RAR Audi              11 laps
     Chris Stockton       BTC Chevrolet         11 laps
     Ollie Jackson        Welch Proton           8 laps
     Robb Holland         Rotek Audi             5 laps
     James Cole           UA Toyota              5 laps
     Rob Collard          WSR BMW                4 laps
     Alain Menu           BMR VW                 0 laps