Vauxhall team-mates James Thompson and Yvan Muller and SEAT Sport UK’s Jason Plato were the winners of today’s dramatic opening three Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds at Thruxton - held in front of live ITV1 cameras and one of the Hampshire circuit’s biggest crowds in recent years.
Thompson led all the way from pole position and set the fastest lap time in his Vauxhall Astra Coupe to win the first of the day’s three races, round one of the championship. Next up came leading HarrierZeuros Independents Trophy runner Matt Neal, in Computeach Racing with Halfords’ Honda Civic Type R, with Muller in third.
Arguably the most entertaining battle was for tenth position which, thanks to the BTCC’s new top ten reversed grid rule, gives the driver achieving it pole position for the day’s second race. Team Honda driver Tom Chilton took the place in his Civic, just behind the Team Petronas Syntium Proton Impian of highly-impressive South African driver Shaun Watson-Smith, whose ninth position earned him second place on round two’s grid - the Malaysian manufacturer’s first front row starting position in the BTCC.
But both drivers saw their chances of victory in round two end just yards after the start. Chilton made a slow get-away and was swamped by the pack, while Watson-Smith also found himself elbowed down the order by Computeach Racing with Halfords’ Dan Eaves and SEAT Sport UK team-mates Robert Huff and Plato.
The race required a three-lap safety car period early on to recover the damaged cars of round one’s top two finishers Thompson and Neal, who had made contact and crashed at high speed. At the re-start, Plato and the following Muller were quick to move past Eaves, but Huff - a fine fifth in the first race - was this time a retirement with a damaged car.
What followed was an intense, nail-biting fight for the lead between Plato and Muller - arch rivals following their often controversial title battle as team-mates in 2001. Plato, to great applause from the spectator banks, withstood massive pressure from current champion Muller to win for SEAT on its debut BTCC race weekend and prove that ETCC-spec cars, like his Toledo Cupra, are able to compete with their BTCC-spec rivals.
A best-ever third, thanks to a daredevil move past Eaves into the chicane, to be the first of the privateer entries across the line was an ecstatic Michael Bentwood, in VX Racing Junior Tech-Speed’s Vauxhall Astra.
Round three saw Plato start from pole position, but Muller was quick to make his move, into the second corner on the opening lap. Once in front, he rapidly built a cushion to the chasing pack to secure victory - a result that, combined with his earlier third and second-place finishes, means he heads to Brands Hatch’s fourth, fifth and sixth rounds on 24/25 April with a ten-point championship lead.
“These are very good results because the reverse grids make what happens in the races very unpredictable,” said Muller. “In the first two races, my car’s set-up was not exactly how I wanted it, but in the third race the team had improved it a lot. Also, the battle with Jason in race two was very sensible - I think we both know that with 30 rounds this is going to be a very long championship and it is important to score well every weekend.”
Plato, his Toledo carrying maximum success ballast following its second round victory, was also forced to surrender runner-up spot to Anthony Reid, the top privateer finisher for the WSR team in its MG ZS. In the closing stages, Plato lost third place to Thompson, the Vauxhall driver putting in a terrific comeback drive from the rear of the grid following his crash in race two. The result means Thompson and Plato are currently tied on points for second position in the title race.
Neal and Chilton, like Thompson starting from near the back of the grid, were less fortunate, however. Neal’s car was still not fully repaired from its race two crash and he had to nurse it home to ninth, while Chilton was tenth, his Honda bearing the scars of several clashes with rival competitors. Bentwood was also out of luck, his Astra suffering engine problems that cruelly prevented him starting from what would have been third on the grid.
Following Thruxton’s opening three rounds, Reid heads Eaves in the HarrierZeuros Independents Trophy by nine points, while Vauxhall and its VX Racing squad are clear leaders over Honda and WSR in the BTCC’s Manufacturers and Teams championships respectively.
Click here for the Official Tom Chilton web site - designed and built by racecar
Click here for the Official Michael Bentwood web site - designed and built by racecar
