Oulton Park BTCC: Jason Plato pips Gordon Shedden to second win
Jason Plato became the first British Touring Car Championship driver to win twice in one day this season as he just beat Gordon Shedden in race two at Oulton Park
The Team BMR driver's victory, his 92nd in the series, was also the first for a driver carrying the maximum 75kgs of ballast introduced for this season.
As in the opening race Plato led from pole, with Shedden tucking in behind and following him closely for the duration.
The Civic Type-R, laden with just 33kgs of ballast, looked stronger on the brakes than the heavier Volkswagen CC, but Shedden rarely looked like being able to force his way through.
On the final lap though Plato had a slight twitch at Knickerbrook, which allowed Shedden to get a good run through Druids and attack into Lodge.
Plato defended and held the middle of the road on the run up Deer Leep as Shedden switch to the outside, but the two-time champion held on by just 0.093s for his fourth win of the season.
Andrew Jordan was a comfortable third in his MG. The Triple Eight man withstood mid-race pressure from the fast-starting Rob Collard before pulling clear in the closing stages.
As Collard dropped back he came under attack from WSR BMW team-mate Andy Priaulx, who had a poor start from fourth on the grid.
The three-time world champion came to the fore on soft tyres late on though, easing away from the Honda of Matt Neal and closing onto Collard's bumper heading on to the final lap.
A misjudgement from Priaulx under braking for the hairpin caused him to hit the left-rear wheel of his team-mate, breaking the toe-link on Collard's 125i M Sport and forcing him into retirement.
Priaulx continued but his BMW was also crippled, and he dropped to 15th.
With his team-mates hobbled Sam Tordoff came through to finish fifth after a strong drive from ninth on the soft tyres, while Adam Morgan followed him in sixth.
Aron Smith held off recovering Team BMR team-mate Colin Turkington to claim seventh, with MG's Jack Goff and Jeff Smith (Eurotech Honda Civic) completing the top 10.
Morgan has drawn the reverse grid pole position for the final race of the day, which will put Plato back in sixth.
RESULTS - 15 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 21m55.812s |
2 | Gordon Shedden | Honda | Honda | 0.093s |
3 | Andrew Jordan | MG | MG | 1.520s |
4 | Matt Neal | Honda | Honda | 7.403s |
5 | Sam Tordoff | WSR | BMW | 8.369s |
6 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Racing | Mercedes | 9.822s |
7 | Aron Taylor-Smith | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 11.536s |
8 | Colin Turkington | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 11.787s |
9 | Jack Goff | MG | MG | 12.276s |
10 | Jeff Smith | Eurotech | Honda | 15.654s |
11 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 16.116s |
12 | Aiden Moffat | Aiden Moffat Racing | Mercedes | 23.715s |
13 | Rob Austin | Rob Austin Racing | Audi | 23.809s |
14 | Martin Depper | Eurotech | Honda | 23.865s |
15 | Andy Priaulx | WSR | BMW | 26.437s |
16 | Warren Scott | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 29.363s |
17 | Daniel Welch | Welch Motorsport | Proton | 31.528s |
18 | Alex Martin | Team Parker | Ford | 32.011s |
19 | Stewart Lines | Houseman Racing | Toyota | 34.507s |
20 | Derek Palmer Jr. | Infiniti | Infiniti | 36.549s |
21 | Simon Belcher | Handy Motorsport | Toyota | 40.226s |
22 | Mike Bushell | AmD | Ford | 40.785s |
23 | Hunter Abbott | Rob Austin Racing | Audi | 40.902s |
24 | Andy Wilmot | Welch Motorsport | Proton | 51.121s |
25 | Kieran Gallagher | Team Hard | Toyota | 1 Lap |
26 | Josh Cook | Power Maxed | Chevrolet | 1 Lap |
- | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | Retirement |
- | Dave Newsham | Power Maxed | Chevrolet | Retirement |
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