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Plato wins again in race two

Jason Plato continued the strong start to his British Touring Car Championship title defence with a second victory at Brands Hatch this afternoon

Plato's RML Chevrolet Cruze made a good getaway to lead into Paddock Hill Bend, while the fast-starting Mat Jackson completed a great move around the outside of James Nash's Triple 8 Engineering Vauxhall Vectra to secure second.

Nash got sideways trying to defend the move, allowing Plato's team-mate Alex MacDowall through.

After a brief safety car period, caused by a clash between Tom Onslow-Cole (AmD Milltek VW Golf) and Tom Boardman (Special Tuning SEAT Leon), Gordon Shedden powered past the ballasted Nash to move his Honda Racing Civic into fourth. That became third when MacDowall was given a drivethrough penalty for jumping the start.

Jackson initially put Plato under a lot of pressure, but Shedden's pace allowed him to catch the lead duo. As the Honda started probing the defences of the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, Plato edged away. He eventually took the flag just over two seconds clear, to extend his BTCC wins record to 62.

Shedden finally forged a way by Jackson out of Clearways with three laps to go to give the turbo-engined Civic its first podium.

Jackson narrowly held off Nash to take third, while Paul O'Neill had a quiet run to fifth in his Tech-Speed Chevrolet Cruze.

Eurotech Racing's Andrew Jordan and former champion Matt Neal (Honda) fought their way through the field after poor race one results. They took sixth and seventh, having overcome a struggling Tom Chilton (Arena Ford), who had made a poor start from row two, in the closing stages.

WSR's Rob Collard was top BMW in ninth, after a spirited battle with reigning Renault Clio champion Dave Newsham, who eventually finished 11th in the Geoff Steel BMW.

Top newcomer was again Tony Gilham, who took 10th in his Triple 8 Vectra.

Results - 26 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet             22m21.689s
 2.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                   + 2.128s
 3.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford          + 2.588s
 4.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall       + 3.001s
 5.  Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet    + 4.232s
 6.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall       + 5.859s
 7.  Matt Neal        Honda                   + 6.286s
 8.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford              + 9.868s
 9.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW                + 11.816s
10.  Tony Gilham      Triple 8 Vauxhall      + 16.019s
11.  Dave Newsham     Geoff Steel BMW        + 16.526s
12.  Andy Neate       Arena Ford             + 17.468s
13.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet              + 22.893s
14.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW                + 28.476s
15.  John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet   + 31.259s
16.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall      + 31.395s
17.  Chris James      ES Chevrolet             + 1 lap
18.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford           + 1 lap
19.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota       + 3 laps

Retirements:

     Tom Onslow-Cole  AmD Volkswagen             1 lap
     Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT       0 laps

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