Rockingham BTCC: Jordan takes championship lead after race-one win
Andrew Jordan now leads the British Touring Car Championship title race after scoring his fifth win of the year in race one at Rockingham
The Eurotech Honda driver made a storming start to surge from row two of the grid to lead by driving around the outside of Jason Plato's polesitting MG6 at the Deene Hairpin.
Jordan immediately began to pull away as Plato fought to fend off Gordon Shedden's Dynamics Honda around the first lap, while two separate incidents at Gracelands took out five cars in the midfield and meant the safety car was deployed for five laps while marshals cleared the wreckage.
Jordan aced the restart and rebuilt his lead as Plato defended again from Shedden while erstwhile points leader Matt Neal spun his Honda at Brook chicane just before the restart and tumbled from fifth to the back end of the order.
Reigning champion Shedden finally broke through Plato's defences exiting the Brook chicane on lap eight to take second, but he would not hold on.
Mat Jackson had already charged his Motorbase Focus up from 12th on the grid to sixth on the opening lap and was quickly past Plato too after the restart.
He grabbed second from Shedden when the Honda ran wide at Deene with five laps left and set off after Jordan, but he could not bridge the gap despite being quicker in the closing stages.
Rob Austin recovered from a poor opening lap to complete the podium. He fell from third on the grid to ninth on the first lap, but his Audi got stronger as the race wore on and he charged back through the order, outdragging Shedden's Honda out of the final corner to nick third spot on the line.
Plato's unwieldy MG held on to fifth, ahead of the WSR BMWs of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard, while the Speedworks Toyota of Dave Newsham just held off Jack Goff's Team HARD Vauxhall Insignia to finish eighth, with Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota) and Nick Foster (WSR BMW) in tow.
Neal recovered to grab two points for 14th place in his Honda, behind Smiths Jeff (Honda) and Aron (Ford), while Ollie Jackson's Toyota demoted front row starter Sam Tordoff's MG to a pointless 16th on the final lap.
Jack Sears Trophy leader Lea Wood's gamble on a green flag lap pitstop for slick tyres on his Vauxhall Vectra paid off. He overhauled the wet-shod Ford Focus of David Nye for S2000 class honours on the last lap.
Results - 19 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda 33m42.513s 2. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford +3.379s 3. Rob Austin Austin Audi +9.071s 4. Gordon Shedden Honda +9.271s 5. Jason Plato MG +14.803s 6. Colin Turkington WSR BMW +19.462s 7. Rob Collard WSR BMW +22.542s 8. Dave Newsham Speedworks Toyota +23.939s 9. Jack Goff Hard Vauxhall +24.395s 10. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota +25.319s 11. Nick Foster WSR BMW +26.175s 12. Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda +29.083s 13. Aron Smith Motorbase Ford +29.358s 14. Matt Neal Honda +34.337s 15. Ollie Jackson Speedworks Toyota +41.183s 16. Sam Tordoff MG +42.843s 17. Howard Fuller Hard Volkswagen +43.372s 18. Andy Wilmot Hard Volkswagen +43.956s 19. Warren Scott BMR Volkswagen +1m19.408s 20. Lea Wood Wood Vauxhall +1m33.175s 21. David Nye Welch Ford +1m35.335s Retirements: Tom Onslow-Cole Motorbase Ford 1 lap Will Bratt Austin Audi 0 laps Daniel Welch Welch Proton 0 laps Adam Morgan Ciceley Toyota 0 laps Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford 0 laps Andy Neate IP Tech Chevrolet 0 laps
Previous article
Rockingham BTCC: Jason Plato leads all-MG front row
Next article
Rockingham BTCC: Rob Austin secures maiden victory
About this article
| Series | BTCC |
| Drivers | Andrew Jordan |
| Teams | BTC Racing |
| Author | Ben Anderson |
The rollercoaster ride of West Surrey Racing's 40 years
It’s four decades since one of UK motorsport’s most successful teams made its debut at Silverstone in British Formula 3. Now it’s top dog in the BTCC, time to blow out some candles with boss Dick Bennetts
Why the BTCC elite should fear Shedden's return
OPINION: The British Touring Car Championship Lord taketh away Dan Cammish, then giveth Gordon Shedden. That means substituting what would have been a future champion with an all-time series great with a point to prove on his return
The tin-top veteran turned policeman hangs up his helmet
Jeff Allam had a long and successful touring car career, and was a highly regarded works driver for Rover and Vauxhall. Then he spent his weekends policing his successors… Time to look back at a BTCC life spanning almost 45 years
The BTCC Brexit that's thrived for a decade
It won't be long until the current BTCC rules become the longest-lasting the series has ever had. The NGTC regulations are due to celebrate their tenth birthday this year and while not totally perfect for everyone, have been a huge success
The top 10 BTCC drivers of 2020
The 2020 British Touring Car Championship will go down as a classic in which new winners graced the top step of the podium and an unloved chassis was resurrected into a champion. But who were the year's top performers?
The Villeneuve-esque 'engineer's dream' who lit up BTCC 2020
The Infiniti Q50 was completely redesigned, redeveloped and revamped by BMR and Laser Tools Racing for 2020. And the flamboyant brilliance of the driver behind the wheel was enough to snatch the title at the last gasp
The BMW game-changer that monopolised the tin-top world
The rival Ford RS500 was more spectacular and almost claimed its place as Autosport's greatest touring car. But the original BMW M3 E30 was too good and too important to be ignored, as its drivers explain
Turkington meets Rouse: The BTCC's greatest in conversation
The two four-time British Touring Car champions discovered they had far more in common than they realised when Autosport brought them together to discuss all things tin-top for its 70th anniversary special earlier this year
