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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