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Mat Jackson beats Gordon Shedden to win first BTCC race at Donington Park

Mat Jackson won a hard fought first British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Donington Park

The Motorbase Ford driver jumped from sixth on the grid to third on the run to the first corner. He then pressured polesitter Jason Plato for the first two laps before the pace of the works MG6 improved and Plato closed on race leader Rob Collard.

Collard's rear-wheel-drive WSR BMW had made a great start from fifth to lead by 1.6 seconds at the end of the first lap, but lacked race pace.

The crucial moment came on lap five of 16. Plato got down the inside of Collard on the run out of Coppice. As they reached the Goddards chicane at the end of the lap, Jackson tried to follow Plato through, but braked too late and nudged the back of the MG.

Plato had to go across the chicane, falling from first to fourth, while Collard was dumped to sixth, the order ahead of him becoming Jackson-Gordon Shedden-Matt Neal-Plato-Tom Onslow-Cole.

Jackson and the Honda of Shedden then edged away from the ballast-laden cars of Neal (Honda) and Plato, who engaged in their own personal duel for third.

Shedden put Jackson under pressure during the closing laps, but the Motorbase man held on to take his first win of the season by 0.229s.

A minor Neal error at the chicane going onto the last lap allowed Plato to attack and he briefly got alongside at the Craner Curves. But Neal held his nerve to secure third.

Onslow-Cole was fifth, his WSR BMW holding off a charging Andrew Jordan's Eurotech Honda by a mere 0.112s. Jordan had ended an awful first lap ninth, having started fourth, but he showed strong race pace as he recovered.

Dave Newsham took seventh in his ES Vauxhall after a brief dice with the flying Jordan and struggling Collard.

The inexperienced Aron Smith continued his fine form with a strong eighth for Motorbase, while Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota) overcame Collard for ninth with a couple of laps to go.

Results - 16 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford     19m11.104s
 2.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                + 0.229s
 3.  Matt Neal        Honda                + 5.600s
 4.  Jason Plato      MG                   + 5.832s
 5.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW              + 8.656s
 6.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda       + 8.768s
 7.  Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall         + 11.750s
 8.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford      + 14.484s
 9.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota      + 20.384s
10.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW             + 24.109s
11.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW             + 36.021s
12.  Daniel Welch     Welch Proton        + 40.216s
13.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda      + 45.844s
14.  Tony Gilham      Gilham Honda        + 46.081s
15.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota   + 46.780s
16.  Andy Neate       MG                  + 58.982s
17.  Chris James      ES Vauxhall       + 1m11.552s

Retirements:
     Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen        11 laps
     Rob Austin       Austin Audi            6 laps
     Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota      2 laps
     Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford          1 lap
     Lea Wood         Wood Vauxhall           1 lap

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Previous article Jason Plato puts new MG on pole for first time in Donington Park British Touring Car round
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