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Thruxton BTCC: Tordoff takes first win in almost a year, Plato punished

Sam Tordoff won the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton from pole position, as second-place starter Jason Plato was relegated to 17th after a penalty

The AmD Tuning driver's 0.4-second victory over Dan Cammish earned the team its third series win, all scored this season, and Tordoff's eighth - having last triumphed in the opening Silverstone race last season.

Tordoff had led the first race at Thruxton earlier in the year before an alternator failure sapped his car's power and dropped him behind Andrew Jordan.

This time around, Plato was a match for Tordoff off the line and attempted to pass for the lead around the outside on the run through to Allard. But as the pack headed on to the Complex, Tordoff's inside line meant he could edge ahead in the braking zone to consolidate first place.

Plato remained in Tordoff's tow for the remainder of the lap but was then was forced to serve a drivethrough penalty for a startline infringement.

The double BTCC champion had stopped his Vauxhall Astra with its front bumper ahead of the line denoting his grid slot - falling foul of a new regulation brought in for the 2019 season.

With Plato dropped to the back, it allowed the FK8 Honda Civic Type R of Dan Cammish to give chase after Tordoff - the latter driving the older FK2 ex-Team Dynamics Civic.

Tordoff crossed the line with a 0.843s advantage and although the race pace dropped, he held on to the victory as the 30kg of success ballast aboard Cammish's car hampered his pace on the abrasive asphalt.

Thanks to a change in engineering staff, the Ciceley Motorsport team's new-found pace carried over from Saturday, with Adam Morgan crossing the line third.

The Mercedes A-Class pressured Cammish for much of the final third but was unable to take advantage.

The BTC Racing FK8 Civic of Josh Cook was fourth, while a ballast-free Tom Oliphant bagged rear-wheel-drive honours for the BMW 330i M Sport in fifth place.

Plato's team-mate Rob Collard was sixth ahead of the second AmD Civic of Rory Butcher.

Matt Neal took advantage of Ashley Sutton's pass on Jordan through Church to climb to eighth.

Honda driver Neal had started in 17th, but when Sutton compromised Jordan's line he snuck through and then used his superior straight-line speed to demote the Subaru Levorg also.

Behind Sutton, the top 10 was completed by Chris Smiley with Tom Ingram in 11th.

Title contender Jordan and points' leader Colin Turkington struggled with their success ballast to 12th and 13th.

Plato eventually recovered to 17th.

Race one result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 16 20m55.872s
2 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 16 0.403s
3 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 16 0.714s
4 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 16 1.208s
5 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 16 3.189s
6 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 16 4.660s
7 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 16 8.923s
8 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 16 10.562s
9 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 16 10.863s
10 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 16 11.446s
11 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 16 12.883s
12 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 16 13.422s
13 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 16 15.118s
14 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 16 17.272s
15 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 16 18.034s
16 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 16 19.126s
17 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 16 22.321s
18 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Infiniti 16 25.134s
19 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 16 25.337s
20 Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 16 25.837s
21 Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 16 27.670s
22 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 16 29.823s
23 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 16 38.288s
24 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 16 38.454s
25 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 16 39.463s
26 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 16 41.643s
27 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 16 46.446s
28 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 16 48.601s
29 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 16 1m04.720s
30 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 15 1 Lap

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