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British Touring Car Championship
Thruxton - Race 1 report - 1/5/11

By MJP Media | 1 May 2011

Honda destroy the field with a sensational 1-2 in the first race at Thruxton as Plato crashes out.

On a muggy and cloudy Sunday morning at Thruxton in Hampshire, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship served up a real treat for the large crowd and massive live ITV audience.

In the first race of the weekend we were to see whether the new regulation changes applied to the turbocharged cars would reduce their substantial advantage displayed during the previous two meetings. At the start, the top 4 on the grid were all turbocharged cars, with defending champion Jason Plato in 5th, the only normally aspirated car in the top 10! As the race got underway the top four - Shedden in the Honda Racing Civic, Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Vectra, Matt Neal in the second Honda and Tom Chilton in the Ford Focus - pulled away from the field with Plato doing his best to hang on to their coat tails. This left no doubt about the turbocharged car's dominance of the 2011 season and may require the organisers to revisit the technical regulations.

As the race progressed the dominance of the top 4 increased and in a calculated move, Matt Neal took Andrew Jordan for second place and set about catching his team-mate, the flying Scotsman, Gordon Shedden. The lead was briefly taken by Matt Neal on lap 13 but regained by Shedden on the following lap. Shedden and Neal crossed the line in 1st and 2nd, over 2.5 seconds ahead of 3rd placed Andrew Jordan. Tom Chilton finished in 4th in the Ford Focus. The first non-turbocharged car was the Silverline Chevrolet Cruze of Alex MacDowall in 10th, almost 13 seconds down on the leaders. A puncture caused Jason Plato to crash out on lap 14.

After race 1, Matt Neal leads the Championship, from James Nash in the Vauxhall Vectra and Mat Jackson in the Airwaves Ford Focus.

 

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