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British Touring Car Championship
Oulton Park - Race 3 Report - 7/6/15

By MJP Media | 7 June 2015

Sam Tordoff takes the victory in the last race from Oulton Park. Jason Plato leads the Drivers' Championship after his best points haul of the season.

Sam Tordoff is delighted with his first win for BMW

The reverse grid for the final race of the day from Oulton Park saw Adam Morgan on pole in his WIX Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class alongside the BMW 125i M Sport of Sam Tordoff for JCT600 Racing with GardX. Five former BTCC champions lined up behind Morgan and Tordoff with Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan on row 2, Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato on row 3 and Colin Turkington on row 4 with Aron Smith. Rob Collard started 27th with the Power Maxed Racing duo of Josh Cook and Dave Newsham 26th and 28th following the events of race 2.

All the front runners got a good start with Sam Tordoff trying to pass Adam Morgan through the first corner. Tordoff ran wide and lost out to Matt Neal in the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R who took 2nd place. At the back of the field, Josh Cook had an excellent start to the race, ending the first lap in 18th place having started from 26th on the grid. Pole-sitter Adam Morgan's race prospects evaporated when he was handed a drive-through penalty for a jump-start. After serving the penalty he re-joined the race in 27th place at the back of the field.

Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff battle on the first lap of the race

As a result of Adam Morgan's drive-through penalty, Matt Neal was now leading the race with a slender advantage over Sam Tordoff in 2nd with Andrew Jordan 3rd, Gordon Shedden 4th and Jason Plato 5th. By lap 5 an intense battle was developing for 2nd place between Tordoff, Jordan and Shedden. Meanwhile, Josh Cook had gained further places in his Chevrolet Cruze and was now up to 15th place. Andy Priaulx set the fastest lap of the race on lap 7 whilst running in 10th place in his Team IHG Rewards Club BMW 125i M Sport.

On lap 8, Matt Neal had a little wobble in his Honda Civic going through Lodge corner allowing Sam Tordoff to take the lead by the end of the lap. Neal lost another place to Andrew Jordan at the start of lap 10 and started to fall prey to his Honda Yuasa Racing team-mate Gordon Shedden who in turn was being pursued by Team BMR drivers Jason Plato and Colin Turkington in their Volkswagen CCs. At the front, Sam Tordoff and Andrew Jordan had extended a small lead whilst Andy Priaulx retired his car from 10th place.

Podium celebrations for Sam Tordoff, Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal

At the chequered flag it was a victory for Sam Tordoff - his first for JCT600 Racing with GardX. Andrew Jordan finished 2nd with Matt Neal 3rd. Gordon Shedden ended the race in 4th place with Jason Plato 5th and Colin Turkington 6th. Aron Smith, Jack Goff, Tom Ingram and Jeff Smith completed the top 10. Following his drive-through penalty, Adam Morgan finished 17th.

Jason Plato now tops the table in the Drivers' Championship on 157 points with Gordon Shedden 2nd on 154 and Matt Neal 3rd on 149. Andrew Jordan is not far behind on 144 points as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship heads to Croft in North Yorkshire for the 5th meeting of the 2015 season on the 27th and 28th of June.

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