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Jason Plato secures 70th British Touring Car race win at Croft

Jason Plato scored his 70th career victory in the British Touring Car Championship when he topped the reversed grid encounter at Croft

The double champion picked his way through the pack after a poor start to make it to fourth place when the safety car appeared on lap six following a crash between backmarkers Liam Griffin and Lea Wood, which resulted in a spectacular fire.

When racing resumed on lap 12, Plato immediately grabbed third place from Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota) on the run to the opening turn and then the MG man profited when Rob Collard's WSR BMW ran wide.

Andy Neate was leading the race in the second Triple Eight Race Engineering MG6 but Plato zeroed in and snatched the initiative with a lunge into Tower corner on lap 15. He romped clear to win by nearly two seconds.

Neate was shuffled down the pack as Tom Onslow-Cole took his WSR BMW into second place and Eurotech Honda man Andrew Jordan demoted the Civic of Matt Neal to take the final spot on the podium.

Race two winner Gordon Shedden finished in sixth place in the other works Honda, just behind Collard, while the top eight was rounded out by Rob Austin's Audi A4 and the WSR BMW of Nick Foster, which had started on pole position.

The result means that Neal has retaken the points lead from team-mate Shedden.

Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Jason Plato      MG                 29m53.281s
 2.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW              + 2.595s
 3.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda       + 5.703s
 4.  Matt Neal        Honda                + 5.951s
 5.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW              + 6.164s
 6.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                + 7.048s
 7.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi          + 8.241s
 8.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW             + 11.056s
 9.  Andy Neate       MG                  + 14.133s
10.  Daniel Welch     Welch Proton        + 14.582s
11.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda      + 15.144s
12.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford      + 15.876s
13.  Paul O'Neill     Speedworks Toyota   + 16.132s
14.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota   + 18.709s
15.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota      + 19.065s
16.  Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall         + 39.949s
17.  Chris James      ES Vauxhall         + 56.191s

Retirements:

     Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen        16 laps
     Tony Gilham      Gilham Honda          12 laps
     Will Bratt       Austin Audi           11 laps
     Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford        11 laps
     Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford         5 laps
     Lea Wood         Central Vauxhall       5 laps

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Previous article Gordon Shedden retakes British Touring Car Championship lead with Croft race two win
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