Oulton Park BTCC: Jason Plato wins red-flagged first race
Jason Plato claimed his third win of the season with victory in a red-flagged opening British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park
The Team BMR driver converted pole position into a comfortable triumph with a faultless drive in Cheshire, bagging pole for race two in the process.
As he raced clear to a lead of over three seconds, Matt Neal was left to fend off Andy Priaulx for second.
Priaulx looked as though he might steal second at the start with a superior launch in his WSR BMW 125i M Sport, but Neal held on round the outside of Old Hall and retained the place into Cascades.
Three-time world champion Priaulx had to hold off Andrew Jordan's MG in the opening laps as his tyres came up to temperature, and once he made third place his own he started to arrow in on the Civic Type-R in front.
Priaulx mounted serious pressure in the closing stages but could not force a mistake from Neal, though any chance of a late move was taken away when Alex Martin tagged Stewart Lines on the run out of Deer Leap and sent the Toyota Avensis spinning into the barriers that protect the start of the pitlane barrier.
Lines vacated his Houseman Racing car unaided, and the race was red-flagged.
Behind the top three Jordan claimed a comfortable fourth having held station just adrift of the Neal/Priaulx battle throughout, ending up as the lead driver on the soft-compound Dunlop tyre.
Last year's champion Colin Turkington ran fifth at first but suffered a brake failure on lap two, which later caused him to run straight on at the hairpin and limp to the finish.
That allowed soft-shod Aron Smith, who passed Shedden at Old Hall with a few laps remaining, to take fifth, while Shedden (also on softs) clinched sixth after holding off the second MG of Jack Goff, Tom Ingram's Speedworks Toyota and Sam Tordoff in the second WSR BMW.
Shedden will start alongside Plato on the front row for race two, ahead of Jordan and Priaulx. Turkington was only able to set the 12th-fastest time.
RESULTS - 14 LAPS:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 21m14.936s |
| 2 | Matt Neal | Honda | Honda | 1.322s |
| 3 | Andy Priaulx | WSR | BMW | 2.789s |
| 4 | Andrew Jordan | MG | MG | 3.696s |
| 5 | Aron Taylor-Smith | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 5.187s |
| 6 | Gordon Shedden | Honda | Honda | 6.439s |
| 7 | Jack Goff | MG | MG | 7.582s |
| 8 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 8.807s |
| 9 | Sam Tordoff | WSR | BMW | 10.432s |
| 10 | Dave Newsham | Power Maxed | Chevrolet | 12.527s |
| 11 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Racing | Mercedes | 13.924s |
| 12 | Josh Cook | Power Maxed | Chevrolet | 15.197s |
| 13 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 16.841s |
| 14 | Martin Depper | Eurotech | Honda | 17.870s |
| 15 | Rob Austin | Rob Austin Racing | Audi | 20.001s |
| 16 | Warren Scott | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 21.296s |
| 17 | Aiden Moffat | Aiden Moffat Racing | Mercedes | 22.607s |
| 18 | Hunter Abbott | Rob Austin Racing | Audi | 23.896s |
| 19 | Jeff Smith | Eurotech | Honda | 24.695s |
| 20 | Daniel Welch | Welch Motorsport | Proton | 26.058s |
| 21 | Alex Martin | Team Parker | Ford | 27.127s |
| 22 | Derek Palmer Jr. | Infiniti | Infiniti | 28.493s |
| 23 | Simon Belcher | Handy Motorsport | Toyota | 30.610s |
| 24 | Mike Bushell | AmD | Ford | 31.965s |
| 25 | Colin Turkington | Team BMR | Volkswagen | 33.753s |
| - | Andy Wilmot | Welch Motorsport | Proton | Retirement |
| - | Stewart Lines | Houseman Racing | Toyota | Retirement |
| - | Kieran Gallagher | Team Hard | Toyota | Not started |
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BTCC: Brands Hatch Race 3 in 60 seconds
BTCC: Brands Hatch Race 2 in 80 seconds
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