Silverstone BTCC: Jason Plato charges from 20th to victory

With race one winner Plato (works MG6) starting 20th and race two victor Mat Jackson (Motorbase Ford Focus) 10th, the early running was made by the WSR BMW of poleman Nick Foster.

As Foster pulled clear, a whole group of cars tried to fight their way past the underpowered NGTC Honda Civics of Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden.

Rob Austin's Audi and the Proton of Dan Welch were the first to make it through, but they then clashed at Copse and dropped down the field.

That let Rob Collard into second, but Jackson and Plato were already latching onto the group.

Plato used his MG's great traction to pass Jackson for sixth on lap six of 22 and he soon overcame Jordan, Shedden and Collard.

The double champion then closed the gap to Foster and got a great run out of Luffield to take the lead at the end of lap 12.

Jackson - running 45kg of success ballast - took longer to get through the group, particularly Jordan, but he swept by Foster exiting Copse with five laps to go.

Once ahead, the Focus pulled away, but there was no catching the leader.

Foster came under increasing pressure from team-mates Collard and Tom Onslow-Cole in the closing stages.

Collard made it by along the start-finish straight, but Foster held off Onslow-Cole as the BMWs finished three-four-five.

Shedden held on well to the BMWs to finish sixth. It means he heads to the Brands Hatch finale later this month with a 15-point lead over Plato.

The other title protagonist, Matt Neal, had a terrible race to end his disastrous weekend.

The works Honda driver was running in the second half of the field when a clash in the complex put him out of the race.

That leaves him 16 points behind Plato and 31 behind team-mate Shedden in the drivers' table.

Results - 22 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Jason Plato      MG                 22m02.547s
 2.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford       + 3.378s
 3.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW              + 5.268s
 4.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW              + 5.965s
 5.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW              + 6.206s
 6.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                + 6.732s
 7.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda       + 9.405s
 8.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota    + 9.795s
 9.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi         + 12.355s
10.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford      + 14.495s
11.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda      + 15.704s
12.  Howard Fuller    Gilham Honda        + 15.835s
13.  Chris James      ES Vauxhall         + 20.529s
14.  Will Bratt       Austin Audi         + 21.392s
15.  Daniel Welch     Welch Proton        + 33.579s
16.  Lea Wood         Wood Vauxhall       + 36.143s
17.  Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen      + 37.012s
18.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota   + 44.881s

Retirements:

     Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford        16 laps
     Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall           11 laps
     Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota        10 laps
     Tony Gilham      Thorney Vauxhall      10 laps
     Matt Neal        Honda                  5 laps
     Andy Neate       MG                     2 laps