Jason Plato has won the second of today’s three HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the Rockingham circuit in Northamptonshire.
Oxford-based Plato passed Racing Silverline Chevrolet team-mate Mat Jackson near the end to take his fourth race win of the season. He also set the race’s fastest lap for a bonus point.
Jackson held on to finish second – that's now eight podium results in a row – ahead of Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi and Team RAC BMW driver Colin Turkington.
As a result, Turkington continues to lead the championship but by the decreased margin of just five points from Giovanardi. Plato, third in the standings, is now just 20 points adrift of Turkington having started the day 42 behind.
Even with this afternoon’s third race still to go, the title race is guaranteed to be a three-way fight between Turkington, Giovanardi and Plato on BTCC Finals Day at Brands Hatch, Kent on Sunday 4 October.
Race one winner Stephen Jelley had led the opening stages in his Team RAC BMW. But soon after a brief safety car period – required to extricate the ‘stranded TH Motorsport/JAG Honda Integra of John George – he was then passed for the lead by Jackson who pulled off a late lunge into the Deene hairpin.
By the end of the lap, Jelley, clearly put off his stride, had lost further places to Plato, Giovanardi, Airwaves BMW driver Jonathan Adam and Turkington. It would also be at Deene, three laps from home and after a second safety car period – this time to remove the stranded TH Motorsport/Inten Honda Civic of Matt Hamilton – that Plato would wrest the lead away from Jackson. Turkington would also get himself into fourth spot by diving past Adam through the Gracelands corner.
Behind the leading five, Jelley held on to sixth ahead of James Nash’s threatening RML Chevrolet. Nash was fortunate to survive a bruising encounter with Paul O’Neill’s sunshine.co.uk Honda Integra that was later forced into retirement with smoke billowing into its cockpit after the pair had tangled at Gracelands.
VXR's Andrew Jordan thus finished eighth ahead of Tom Chilton’s Team Aon Ford Focus and Johnny Herbert’s Team Dynamics Honda Civic that had both come through from the rear of the grid after dismal race one results. Chilton was later in luck when he was drawn on pole position for the race three reversed grid…
That was in complete contrast to the fortunes of team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole who retired in the pit lane before the start with mechanical problems. Joining him was the gutted Robert Collard whose Airwaves BMW – meant to start from fourth on the grid – suffered a broken driveshaft on the final warming-up lap. Gordon Shedden also retired his Club SEAT Leon shortly before the end with alternator failure.
Almost unnoticed, Matt Neal joined the race half-way through for six laps to ‘try out’ his VXR Vectra after his crew – complete with welding gear – had repaired its front-end following a heavy race one smash.
