Jordan takes first victory of 2011
Andrew Jordan took his first win of 2011 in Donington Park's second British Touring Car race this afternoon
The Eurotech Racing Vauxhall Vectra driver, who has been on the leading pace since pre-season testing, jumped the polesitting Honda Civic of Matt Neal at the start. He was followed by the similar Triple 8 Engineering machine of James Nash.
Despite two safety car periods - the first for a serious crash for Jason Plato at the Craner Curves after Gordon Shedden (Honda Racing) touched Liam Griffin, firing the Ford Focus into the double champion - Jordan held his nerve to defeat Nash by 0.8 seconds.
It was Jordan's first BTCC win in a non-reverse grid race.
"James was hassling me the whole way," said Jordan. "It was nip-and-tuck, but it's really nice."
Neal shadowed the Vectras throughout without challenging, and had to hold off Tom Chilton's Arena Motorsport Ford Focus in the closing stages to secure a podium finish.
Mat Jackson could have been fourth, but outbraked himself at the chicane early on, allowing Chilton to repass him. When Chilton got sideways at the Old Hairpin, Jackson drew alongside, but the pair clashed at McLeans, sending Jackson down to an eventual 10th.
A fast-starting Rob Collard was therefore fifth and top normally aspirated runner. He couldn't hold off the turbo Focuses down the start-finish straight, but the WSR BMW man finished just out of reach of the charging Shedden, who took sixth after starting from the back.
The ever-improving AmD Milltek Racing Volkswagen Golf of Tom Onslow-Cole avoided all the trouble to take a fine seventh, and score the team's first BTCC points, despite pressure from the RML Chevrolet of Alex MacDowall for much of the race.
MacDowall was demoted to ninth on the final lap, as Nash's team-mate Tony Gilham again scored points in his first season in the championship by powering past in the closing moments.
Results - 19 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Vauxhall 26m54.737s 2. James Nash Triple 8 Vauxhall + 0.776s 3. Matt Neal Honda + 1.359s 4. Tom Chilton Arena Ford + 2.009s 5. Rob Collard WSR BMW + 2.472s 6. Gordon Shedden Honda + 3.155s 7. Tom Onslow-Cole AmD Volkswagen + 8.091s 8. Tony Gilham Triple 8 Vauxhall + 8.800s 9. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet + 8.909s 10. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford + 9.179s 11. Andy Neate Arena Ford + 10.657s 12. John George Tech-Speed Chevrolet + 12.011s 13. Jeff Smith Eurotech Vauxhall + 16.829s 14. Chris James ES Chevrolet + 18.235s 15. Dave Newsham Geoff Steel BMW + 21.041s 16. Tony Hughes Speedworks Toyota + 22.233s Retirements: Nick Foster WSR BMW 12 laps Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT 10 laps Paul O'Neill Tech-Speed Chevrolet 9 laps Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota 7 laps Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford 0 laps Rob Austin Austin Audi 0 laps Jason Plato Chevrolet 0 laps
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