Jason Plato has won the third of today’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at Thruxton.

From second on the grid, reigning Champion Plato took an immediate lead and was never headed as he took his third win of the season in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze. The result went some way to making up for a tough day for Plato who’d crashed out of the first race.

Finishing second was Mat Jackson in his Airwaves Ford Focus and in third, his first outright podium result in the BTCC, an elated Tom Boardman in his Special Tuning SEAT Leon. Both Jackson and Boardman, it later transpired, were lucky to finish the race.

Oxford’s Plato, who also set the fastest lap, commented: “This makes up for what has been a bad day. Race starts is one of our strengths. I played to that strength to get the lead and then it was a case of managing the gap to Mat. But for the second meeting in a row I have to say a big thanks to my team who did a great job to repair my car, which was badly damaged in the crash in race one – the data shows I hit the barriers at 100mph. I’m aching a bit now.”

Jackson, now up to second in the standings behind Honda’s Matt Neal and who also leads the Independent drivers’ table, said: “We had two tough races earlier so knew finishing on the podium in this one was really important to make up some points. Thankfully the car just made it across the line as it cut out just a few yards later and I had to stop.”

The ecstatic Boardman added: “During the safety car period my engine just cut out and I thought it was game over. But I managed to restart it and it held together fine after that. Phew! What a feeling – we’ve had some cruel luck in the past when we’ve been on course for podiums so this is a very special feeling for everyone in our small team.”

James Nash finished fourth in his 888 Racing with Collins Contractors Vauxhall Vectra ahead of the day’s first two race winners, team-mates Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden in their Honda Racing Team Civics. Neal will leave Thruxton tonight holding a 12-point lead at the top of the championship from Jackson, while next up are Nash, Andrew Jordan – who finished the race in seventh in his Pirtek Vectra – Shedden and Plato.

The safety car period mentioned by Boardman was required to clear Tom Chilton’s wrecked Team Aon Ford Focus after he’d crashed heavily exiting Allard corner while defending his position from Jordan. Plato and Nash’s team-mates, Alex MacDowall and Tony Gilham, and Tom Onslow-Cole in his AmD Milltek VW Golf completed the top ten, the latter having come through from the rear of the grid.

In addition to Chilton, the only other retirement was Frank Wrathall’s Dynojet Toyota Avensis which ground to a halt out on track.

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