Plato claims Thruxton race three win

Starting third, the SEAT driver moved up a place when he passed polesitter Andrew Jordan on the first lap and then took the lead when Gordon Shedden suffered a front-right puncture - his second of the day - on lap eight.

The 2001 champion then held off the advances of Jordan's Eurotech-John Guest Honda during the middle of the race before pulling away to his 40th BTCC victory and his second of the year.

Jordan became embroiled in a four-way battle with Mat Jackson, Darren Turner and Adam Jones, which was reduced to three cars when Turner lost third place to a right-front puncture just like Shedden's and dropped to 16th after a pitstop.

The second half of the race saw championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi join the fray. After passing Jackson for third at Church on lap 13, he and Jordan had a coming together at the Club chicane, sending the Honda off the track and forcing the Italian to slow momentarily.

BMW Dealer Team UK driver Jackson nipped past both into second while Tom Chilton suffered a puncture as he ended up in the middle of the Italian, Matt Neal and Jones while exiting the corner. Chilton retired as a result in his Team Halfords Honda.

Jordan, who retained third despite his off, retired in the pits a lap later, which allowed Giovanardi to complete the podium ahead of Neal's Vauxhall and Jones' Team Air-Cool SEAT. Colin Turkington and Tom Onslow-Cole, who won the first two races of the day, were next up.

Giovanardi now leads the championship by 17 points from Plato.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Jason Plato          SEAT       21:37.731
 2.  Mat Jackson          BMW         +  1.546
 3.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall    +  2.300
 4.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall    +  3.411
 5.  Adam Jones           SEAT        +  4.897
 6.  Colin Turkington     BMW         +  5.914
 7.  Tom Onslow-Cole      Vauxhall    +  8.421
 8.  Mike Jordan          Honda       +  9.123
 9.  Steven Kane          BMW         + 18.980
10.  Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet   + 19.974
11.  Rob Collard          BMW         + 25.788
12.  John George          Honda       + 26.687
13.  Jason Hughes         Honda       + 32.085
14.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall    + 37.225
15.  Martyn Bell          Vauxhall    + 45.870
16.  Darren Turner        SEAT        + 51.804
17.  Gordon Shedden       Honda       + 58.712

Retirements:

     Driver               Car        Laps
     Alan Taylor          Honda      14
     Tom Chilton          Honda      13
     Andrew Jordan        Honda      13
     Stephen Jelley       BMW        10
     Chris Stockton       SEAT       8
     Gareth Howell        SEAT       8