Plato wins after Hondas collide

Rain before the start again made tyre choice difficult. Most runners started with slicks on the front and wets on the back, though the frontrunning WSR BMWs started on wets all-round.

Poleman Gordon Shedden led from the start, despite carrying 45kg of success ballast, while his Honda team-mate Matt Neal (with no ballast) worked his way through the field.

Neal powered past the battling Plato and James Nash (Triple 8 Vauxhall Vectra) for second at half-distance, then ran off at the hairpin and dropped back to fourth.

He soon got back to second, but was 10 seconds behind his team-mate. That was until John George went off at Lodge, bringing out the safety car.

There was time for three flying laps after the restart and Neal tracked Shedden as they pulled clear of Plato. He inadvertently nudged Shedden at the hairpin on the penultimate lap, but then seemed to back off to allow his team-mate to continue leading.

The Civics were set for a one-two as they approached Lodge for the final time, only for Neal to try and dive down the inside. The cars touched and both went off, leaving Neal in the gravel and dropping Shedden to sixth.

That allowed Plato through to take his fourth victory of the season.

Nash would have been second, but was passed on the run to the line by the wet-shod Rob Collard. The BMW driver had fallen as low as seventh in the drier part of the race, but was revived by extra rain late on.

Eurotech Racing's Andrew Jordan held off the Chevrolet Cruze of Alex MacDowall for fourth, while Paul O'Neill's Tech-Speed Chevy and Collard's team-mate Nick Foster followed the unfortunate Shedden across the line.

Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet             31m12.569s
 2.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW                 + 2.317s
 3.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall       + 2.408s
 4.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall       + 6.576s
 5.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet               + 6.864s
 6.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                   + 7.647s
 7.  Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet    + 7.653s
 8.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW                 + 8.042s
 9.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford          + 9.481s
10.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford              + 9.859s
11.  Lea Wood         Central Honda          + 11.051s
12.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi            + 18.737s
13.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota         + 19.290s
14.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota      + 21.490s
15.  Andy Neate       Arena Ford             + 25.756s
16.  Tom Onslow-Cole  AmD Volkswagen         + 32.071s
17.  Dave Newsham     Special Tuning SEAT      + 1 lap
18.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford           + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Matt Neal        Honda                    17 laps
     Chris James      ES Chevrolet             15 laps
     Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT      15 laps
     John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet     11 laps
     Tony Gilham      Triple 8 Vauxhall         4 laps
     Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall         0 laps