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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (GP) - Race 2 Report - 12/10/14

By MJP Media | 12 October 2014

Jason Plato wins his second race of the day as the carnage continues at Brands Hatch.

Jason Plato on the podium with a delighted Adam Morgan 2nd

With so many retirements and repairs after race 1, it wasn't until 10 minutes before the second race that the grid was actually finalised! Jason Plato started from pole position and although he was now unable to win the championship, he desperately wanted to win the race.

Colin Turkington was able to blast into the lead off the line but at Paddock Hill, Alain Menu had a huge crash backwards into the barrier causing an immediate safety car period. On the restart it was Turkington leading from Jason Plato, Mat Jackson and Rob Collard with Sam Tordoff down from 2nd to 5th.

Colin Turkington is punted off the track by Jason Plato

On lap 4, a cynical move by Jason Plato took Colin Turkington off at Paddock Hill bend. Plato, never in a realistic position to overtake, deliberately went off the inside of the circuit and tapped the rear corner of the BMW whilst it was unstable in the bend, launching it across the circuit into the barriers. As a result, Rob Collard was able to take the lead ahead of the two MGs. There then followed several incidents involving Mat Jackson, Fabrizio Giovanardi and others and another safety car period was required.

After the safety car period, Rob Collard who was on soft tyres continued to lead ahead of Jason Plato. Adam Morgan passed Sam Tordoff to take 3rd place and then set about Jason Plato with Tordoff 4th, Andrew Jordan 5th and Tom Ingram 6th. With Nick Foster 7th, Aron Smith 8th, Gordon Shedden 9th and Aiden Moffat 10th the top three were locked in an intense battle and on lap 14 Adam Morgan was able to take 2nd from Plato going into Druids. Lap 15 saw Collard's soft tyres starting to go off and Morgan took Collard for first and was followed through by the two MGs. Later in the same lap, Morgan slipped on to the grass, gifting Plato the lead back with two laps to go.

Jason Plato leading from Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff

The top three maintained their positions to the flag so it was a second win of the day (subject to any judicial review of the Turkington incident) for Jason Plato ahead of Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff. Morgan was delighted with the WIX Racing Mercedes' first ever podium in the BTCC. "It was brilliant" said Morgan, "I could possibly have won it, but I just touched the brakes as the car was unsettled and had a moment which put me on the grass and let Jason back through". Rob Collard had another excellent race to finish 4th with 2013 champion Andrew Jordan 5th.

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