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British Touring Car Championship
Oulton Park - Race 1 Report - 7/6/15

By MJP Media | 7 June 2015

Jason Plato continues his domination of the Oulton Park Island Circuit with an impressive lights-to-flag victory for Team BMR and now leads the Drivers' Championship.

Jason Plato being interviewed after winning race 1

Oulton Park in Cheshire provides the venue for the 4th meeting of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship and it was Jason Plato in his Team BMR Volkswagen CC who dominated both free practice sessions and the qualifying session yesterday, shattering the previous BTCC lap record around the picturesque Island circuit set by Plato in 2013. Such are the technical improvements in the last two years that no fewer than 10 cars posted qualifying times faster than Plato's 2013 record.

Plato not only set the timing screens alight yesterday to secure pole position for the first race today, he also set his brakes on fire in the process. The double BTCC champion is clearly determined to add another title to his collection! Plato was joined on the front row of the grid by is his arch-rival Matt Neal in a Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R, just 0.011 seconds behind. Row 2 was taken by Andy Priaulx in the Team IHG Rewards Club BMW 125i M Sport and Andrew Jordan in the MG 888 Racing MG 6GT with Gordon Shedden and defending BTCC champion Colin Turkington on row 3. Aron Smith and Jack Goff started on row 4 with Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan on row 5.

Matt Neal and Andy Priaulx battle for 2nd place

Jason Plato got a good start as did Andy Priaulx who passed Matt Neal for 2nd only for Neal to regain the place before the end of the first lap with Andrew Jordan in 4th. As the battle for 2nd place continued behind him, Plato started to extend his lead and was 1.77 seconds ahead of Neal by the end of lap 2 and over 2 seconds ahead by lap 3. Behind the front-runners, Gordon Shedden was running in 5th ahead of Colin Turkington Aron Smith and Jack Goff. On lap 6 Turkington made an uncharacteristic error going wide at the Island hairpin, forcing him to take the extended circuit loop and dropping him down to 25th. Smith took advantage of this and started attacking Shedden for 5th.

At the half way stage, Andy Priaulx was challenging Matt Neal for 2nd place but was unable to pass the triple BTCC champion while Jason Plato had extended his lead to over 3.4 seconds. After several laps of trying, Aron Smith passed Gordon Shedden on lap 9 to take 5th place. With Plato out in front and Priaulx and Neal battling for 2nd, the order remained unchanged when contact between Stewart Lines and Alex Martin on lap 12 caused Lines to crash his Houseman Racing Toyota Avensis heavily into the barriers at the entrance to the pit lane, causing the Safety Car to be deployed.

Andy Priaulx (3rd), Jason Plato (1st) and Matt Neal (2nd)

As the marshals dealt with Lines' stricken Toyota, the race was Red Flagged and the results declared final as there would not have been enough laps remaining to restart the race once the car had been recovered and the barriers repaired. The race victory went to a delighted Jason Plato who now leads the Drivers' Championship by just 1 point over Gordon Shedden. Matt Neal finished 2nd with Andy Priaulx 3rd. Andrew Jordan crossed the line 4th ahead if Aron Smith in 5th and Gordon Shedden in 6th. Jack Goff, Tom Ingram, Sam Tordoff and Dave Newsham completed the top ten.

Based on their fastest lap times from this race, race 2 will see Jason Plato once again in pole position however he will be carrying the maximum amount of success ballast in his Volkswagen CC. Joining Plato on the front row will be Gordon Shedden who will have less success ballast on board than he did in race 1. Row 2 will be taken by Andrew Jordan and Andy Priaulx with Matt Neal and Jeff Smith on row 3. How will the extra weight affect Plato's car? Will Shedden, Jordan or Priaulx be able to take advantage of Plato's heavier car? We'll find out very soon!

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media