Jason Plato has won today’s second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Brands Hatch – adding to his victory in the first.

As in race one, Plato led all the way in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze to achieve the 62nd triumph of his career (he’d already achieved a record 61st earlier today).

The Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden finished second in his repaired Civic ahead of Mat Jackson’s Airwaves Racing Ford Focus. Jackson had held second for much of the race, challenging Plato for the lead early on, but in the closing stages was passed by Shedden and dropped to third.

Plato's two wins today have already thrust him into a handy 11-point championship lead but he will only start from seventh on race three's reversed grid. He said: “Winning that one will be impossible. My car will have maximum success ballast (45kgs) again and all the turbo cars around me have much better torque out of the corners which makes it very difficult to overtake them. Given the buffer we’ve already built up in races one and two then a nice boring points finish will be quite satisfactory, but if there’s a gap I’ll certainly be going for it.”

Scottish ace Shedden, who started the race from sixth – reward for a terrific drive from 22nd in race one – added: “The Honda Racing Team really deserve this for the work they did in repairing the car after the crash yesterday. I was quite happy to follow Jackson, but then it started to go a bit pear-shaped for him and when his car went wide at Clearways I didn’t need a second invitation to nip down the inside.”

James Nash, second in race one, took fourth in his 888 Racing with Collins Contractors Vauxhall Vectra, followed by Paul O’Neill’s GoMobileUK.com with tech-speed Chevrolet Cruze. Sixth and seventh, having worked their way through from the back of the grid after problems in race one, were Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Vectra) and Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal who set a new lap record.

Notably, after the race and live on the ITV network's ITV4 and ITV4 HD channels, Ferrari’s 1979 Formula 1 World Champion Jody Scheckter drew Number 7 to put Neal on pole position for race three's reversed starting grid. Jordan will therefore line up in second alongside Neal – just as they started today’s first race having qualified first and second fastest in Saturday’s qualifying session.

Meanwhile, sixth for many laps, Tom Chilton wilted to eighth in his Aon Focus. Robert Collard (WSR BMW) and, scoring another point on debut BTCC event, Nash’s team-mate Tony Gilham completed the top ten. Fellow newcomer Dave Newsham (GSR BMW) was just half a second behind Gilham at the flag in 11th having earlier spent many a lap battling with Collard.

Plato’s team-mate Alex MacDowall finished 13th following a pit lane drive-through penalty for jumping the start. Other top names Tom Onslow-Cole (AmD Milltek Golf) and Tom Boardman (STR SEAT) retired on the opening lap with accident damage after their cars had collided at the very first bend.

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