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Plato takes title with another win

Jason Plato sealed the British Touring Car Championship with a lights-to-flag victory in the penultimate race of the season at Brands Hatch

The Chevrolet driver led Matt Neal for the entirety of the race distance and eventually crossed the line 0.887 seconds ahead of the Honda to take his 60th career victory and equal Andy Rouse's all-time record.

Neal dropped to third off the line, but re-took second at Druids on the opening lap when he punted Alex MacDowall's Chevrolet off onto the grass.

After that he was able to run his own race and was followed home by Rob Collard's WSR BMW.

Paul O'Neill was a superb fourth in his Tech-Speed Honda while Tom Chilton held off a charging Steven Kane for sixth.

Chilton's result, coupled with a technically-induced retirement for his Arena Ford team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole, means that he trails his namesake by just two points in the independents' championship with one race to go.

Kane, who charged up from 11th at the end of the first lap, to sixth by the finish, is just six points behind Onslow-Cole himself.

Key to Kane's race was passing both his Motorbase BMW team-mate Mat Jackson and Tom Boardman's Special Tuning UK SEAT in one go on lap 14 after Jackson had helped his rival wide.

Andrew Jordan (Eurotech Vauxhall) finished seventh ahead of Jackson, James Nash (Triple 8 Vauxhall) and Andy Neate, who took his WSR BMW past Ben Collins' Motorbase example after the latter had helped off Boardman.

Pos  Driver               Ca                 Time
 1.  Jason Plato          Chevrolet          22:11.749
 2.  Matt Neal            Honda              + 0.887
 3.  Rob Collard          BMW                + 4.783
 4.  Paul O'Neill         Honda              + 5.671
 5.  Tom Chilton          Ford               + 8.314
 6.  Steven Kane          BMW                + 9.485
 7.  Andrew Jordan        Vauxhall           + 16.022
 8.  Mat Jackson          BMW                + 16.333
 9.  James Nash           Vauxhall           + 16.848
10.  Andy Neate           BMW                + 20.094
11.  Sam Tordoff          Vauxhall           + 20.760
12.  Ben Collins          BMW                + 21.876
13.  Tom Boardman         SEAT               + 22.842
14.  John George          Honda              + 36.110
15.  Lea Wood             Honda              + 37.391
16.  Arthur Forster       BMW                + 42.761
17.  Shaun Hollamby       Volkswagen         + 43.973

Retirements:

    Driver                  Car            Laps
    Gordon Shedden          Honda          22
    Tom Onslow-Cole         Ford           13
    Alex MacDowall          Chevrolet      9
    Martin Depper           BMW            5
    James Kaye              Honda          0

Fastest lap: Rob Collard, 48.898

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