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Donington Park BTCC: Jason Plato takes his first win in BMR's VW

Jason Plato won the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Donington Park to earn his first victory for Team BMR

The double champion started third, behind team-mate Colin Turkington and Honda's Gordon Shedden, but was in front by the end of the first lap.

Plato beat Shedden off the line and grabbed second at Redgate on the inside, nudging Turkington in the process, before passing the pole-claiming sister Volkswagen CC out of Coppice.

He eased clear and held a two-second lead for the majority of the race, although by virtue of setting only the fourth-best time he will start the second encounter on the outside of the second row and with 75kg of ballast in his car.

Turkington dropped to third when Shedden passed him at Redgate at the start of the second lap, but harried the Scot throughout.

The Civic Type-R driver, whose fastest lap gives him pole for race two, offered the race one poleman a slight opportunity when he made a small mistake at McLeans three laps from the end and briefly ran across the gravel, but held Turkington at bay to the flag.

That battle was just out of reach of Andrew Jordan as the 2013 champion claimed the best result of his fledgling MG career, while Sam Tordoff overcame WSR's straightline speed problems to clinch sixth in his 125i M Sport.

Dave Newsham was best of the two Power Maxed Racing Chevrolets in seventh. with team-mate Josh Cook dropping from sixth on the grid to 15th as his soft tyres dropped off.

Although Newsham was not quite close enough to challenge Tordoff, he was well clear of a terrific scrap between Jack Goff and Rob Collard.

Goff, from 13th on the grid, was ahead in his MG but seemed to lose speed out of McLeans on lap 12, dropping behind Collard, and had to outdrag the BMW on the run from the chicane to the flag to take seventh by 0.035s.

Mercedes driver Adam Morgan was another driver to have an issue at McLeans, running wide early on while fourth and dropping to 10th, and he only made it back to ninth, just ahead of Rob Austin.

That was still comfortably the best of any of the drivers who opted to use the soft tyre.

Matt Neal fared worse of that bunch, running as high as fifth at one stage but plummeting to 16th and out of the points.

The erstwhile points leader suffered worst as 66kg of ballast meant the Civic Type-R chewed its Dunlop tyres.

RACE ONE RESULTS - 16 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Jason Plato Team BMR Volkswagen 18m54.080s
2 Gordon Shedden Honda Honda 1.401s
3 Colin Turkington Team BMR Volkswagen 1.782s
4 Andrew Jordan MG MG 5.961s
5 Sam Tordoff WSR BMW 14.328s
6 Dave Newsham Power Maxed Chevrolet 15.177s
7 Jack Goff MG MG 20.279s
8 Rob Collard WSR BMW 20.314s
9 Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes 21.774s
10 Rob Austin Rob Austin Racing Audi 22.269s
11 Warren Scott Team BMR Volkswagen 25.881s
12 Andy Priaulx WSR BMW 26.711s
13 Josh Cook Power Maxed Chevrolet 29.701s
14 Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda 30.707s
15 Martin Depper Eurotech Honda 30.988s
16 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 35.130s
17 Matt Neal Honda Honda 35.812s
18 Aiden Moffat Aiden Moffat Racing Mercedes 35.836s
19 Hunter Abbott Rob Austin Racing Audi 36.069s
20 Alex Martin Team Parker Ford 39.095s
21 Kieran Gallagher Team Hard Toyota 58.407s
22 Derek Palmer Jr. Infiniti Infiniti 1m03.124s
23 Richard Hawken Infiniti Infiniti 1 Lap
24 Stewart Lines Houseman Racing Toyota 1 Lap
- Andy Wilmot Welch Motorsport Proton Retirement
- Simon Belcher Handy Motorsport Toyota Retirement
- Daniel Welch Welch Motorsport Proton Retirement
- Aron Taylor-Smith Team BMR Volkswagen Not started
- Mike Bushell AmD Ford Retirement

RACE TWO GRID:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Gordon Shedden Honda Honda 1m09.741s -
2 Colin Turkington Team BMR Volkswagen 1m09.844s 0.103s
3 Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes 1m09.874s 0.133s
4 Jason Plato Team BMR Volkswagen 1m09.946s 0.205s
5 Andrew Jordan MG MG 1m10.056s 0.315s
6 Jack Goff MG MG 1m10.287s 0.546s
7 Matt Neal Honda Honda 1m10.414s 0.673s
8 Rob Collard WSR BMW 1m10.519s 0.778s
9 Dave Newsham Power Maxed Chevrolet 1m10.531s 0.790s
10 Aiden Moffat Aiden Moffat Racing Mercedes 1m10.601s 0.860s
11 Sam Tordoff WSR BMW 1m10.611s 0.870s
12 Andy Priaulx WSR BMW 1m10.631s 0.890s
13 Josh Cook Power Maxed Chevrolet 1m10.720s 0.979s
14 Rob Austin Rob Austin Racing Audi 1m10.750s 1.009s
15 Martin Depper Eurotech Honda 1m10.771s 1.030s
16 Hunter Abbott Rob Austin Racing Audi 1m10.840s 1.099s
17 Warren Scott Team BMR Volkswagen 1m10.900s 1.159s
18 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 1m10.907s 1.166s
19 Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda 1m11.032s 1.291s
20 Alex Martin Team Parker Ford 1m11.613s 1.872s
21 Kieran Gallagher Team Hard Toyota 1m12.689s 2.948s
22 Derek Palmer Jr. Infiniti Infiniti 1m12.705s 2.964s
23 Stewart Lines Houseman Racing Toyota 1m14.398s 4.657s
24 Richard Hawken Infiniti Infiniti 1m14.539s 4.798s
25 Simon Belcher Handy Motorsport Toyota 1m15.117s 5.376s
26 Andy Wilmot Welch Motorsport Proton 1m20.630s 10.889s
27 Mike Bushell AmD Ford - -
28 Daniel Welch Welch Motorsport Proton - -
29 Aron Taylor-Smith Team BMR Volkswagen - -

Set by fastest laps in race one

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