- dramas for Hondas
Jason Plato has won a highly dramatic opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in Kent today.
But there was disaster for Honda team-mates Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden who both failed to score after suffering punctures. The result means Plato has dramatically slashed the gap to joint championship leaders Neal and Shedden from 24 points to just six in one fell swoop.
In baking hot conditions Plato led all the way from pole position in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze and also set the race’s fastest lap – a new lap record – to ensure a maximum score.
Team-mate Alex MacDowall looked set to make it a Chevrolet 1-2 in second but then he slowed on the final lap, this allowing Mat Jackson to claim the runner-up spot in his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus.
MacDowall took third just ahead of James Nash in his 888 Racing with Collins Contractors Vauxhall Vectra. Tom Onslow-Cole (Team Aon Ford Focus) and Paul O’Neill (GoMobileUK.com with tech-speed Cruze) completed the top six.
Meanwhile Neal and Shedden finished the race down in 18th and 19th places after both were forced to make pit stops to have punctured tyres on their Honda Racing Team Civics replaced. They’d been running in third and eighth respectively when they hit problems, Shedden having lost several places after earlier sliding off the track at Graham Hill Bend.
Significantly, as Neal slowed at Hawthorn’s Bend, Nash was delayed and Jackson was able to nip past into what would eventually become second place. It means Jackson has edged three points nearer Nash at the top of the Independents Trophy table, the gap between them now just 22.
And there was also despair for Andrew Jordan. Having qualified second fastest yesterday he was unable to start the race after his Pirtek Racing Vauxhall Vectra suffered engine problems in its pit garage.
Oxford’s Plato said: “My car is fantastic around here. I suppose this does get me back into it, but it’s still way too early to think about titles. If both Honda drivers can have problems then anybody can. I need a super points score today to stand any chance.”
Warwickshire’s Jackson, fourth in the standings, has also edged 12 points nearer the championship lead thanks to his second place. From 45 points behind he’s now just 33 adrift and said: “That was close with Neal – James ducked left to go round him just as Matt pulled to the same side of the track and I was able to squeeze past on the right. Then I was closing on Alex and he didn’t put up a fight so here I am.”
Cumbrian MacDowall added: “I seemed to work my tyres too hard in the middle stages and then starting the final lap I got a terrible vibration through the steering. I thought I’d got a puncture and Mat went by, but then I was able to pick up pace.”
The top ten was rounded out by Tom Chilton (Team Aon Ford), Robert Collard (WSR BMW) and their respective team-mates Andy Neate and Nick Foster, the latter having come through from 20th on the grid. Collard was in the thick of the action throughout and on the penultimate lap he and Frank Wrathall made contact at Westfield Bend, the latter’s Dynojet Toyota Avensis spinning off the track with suspension damage. That incident delayed Collard and he was overtaken by Neate, but then re-took the Ford driver on the final lap.
Elsewhere Oliver Jackson (888/Collins Vectra) and Chris Swanwick (Rob Austin Racing Audi A4) impressively finished 11th and 17th on their BTCC debuts. Completing the 22 finishers was Martin Byford, a lap down in his AmD Milltek Racing.com VW Golf after pitting to have an engine misfire cured.
Tom Boardman should have been in among the battle for eighth, but he cruelly slowed on the final lap with a puncture on his Special Tuning Racing SEAT Leon. In a race of attrition, his team-mate Dave Newsham also retired in a cloud of steam at the entry to Hawthorn’s. Lea Wood’s Central Group Racing Honda Integra came to a halt at Sheene Curve and it was at the same corner that Daniel Welch, running on the fringes of the top ten early on, suffered a broken steering arm on his Welch Motorsport Proton Gen-2 which he then nursed back to the pit lane. Jeff Smith stopped his Vectra in the pit lane as well with a snapped gearlever, making it a miserable race for the Pirtek squad.
Click here for the Tom Chilton web site - designed and built by Racecar
Click here for the Official Alex Macdowall web site - designed and built by Racecar
