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British Touring Car Championship
Rockingham - Race 1 Report - 6/9/15

By MJP Media | 6 September 2015

Mat Jackson leads all the way to take a lights-to-flag victory in the first BTCC race at Rockingham. Gordon Shedden recovers from his grid penalty to take 2nd as Jason Plato suffers suspension damage.

Mat Jackson is delighted with his victory in the first race

Following an exciting and eventful qualifying session at Northamptonshire's Rockingham circuit yesterday, Mat Jackson secured pole position for Motorbase Performance and lined up on the front row of the grid for the first race of the day alongside Aron Smith for Team BMR RCIB Insurance. Jack Goff started on row 2 for MG 888 Racing with Tom Ingram for Speedworks Motorsport whilst Jason Plato and Matt Neal lined up on row 3. With a 4-place grid penalty resulting from a pit lane infringement yesterday, Gordon Shedden started on row 4 alongside Aiden Moffat. Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan started on row 5.

With Hunter Abbott and Jeff Smith heading to the pit lane on the formation lap, the race got under way with all drivers getting good starts however before the end of the first lap, championship leader Jason Plato had sustained damage to the rear suspension on his Team BMR RCIB Insurance Volkswagen CC but managed to haul it back to his pit garage in the hope that the team could get him running again. In the early laps it was Gordon Shedden who was on a charge and by the end of lap 2 he had moved up to 3rd place from 7th on the grid. Meanwhile Mat Jackson was extending his lead at the front while Aron Smith had to defend his 2nd place from Shedden in his Honda Civic Type R.

Mat Jackson in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus

By lap 4, Gordon Shedden had moved up to 2nd place, having passed Aron Smith at the Deene hairpin. Lap 4 also saw the return of Jason Plato, his team having worked miracles to repair the damage to his Volkswagen CC sustained a few laps earlier. With no possibility of championship points from this race, Plato's task now was to set a fast lap time in order to get a good grid position for the second race of the day. On lap 5 Matt Neal was battling with Jack Goff for 4th place and briefly took the position before Goff regained it. In the ensuing laps Goff built a slight gap over Neal.

Behind the leaders, a battle was developing between Power Maxed Racing's Josh Cook, Tom Ingram and Aiden Moffat with Andrew Jordan joining the party a few laps later along with Colin Turkington, Sam Tordoff and Adam Morgan. Moffat subsequently got stuck in the grave trap at the Tarzan hairpin, ending his race. In the closing stages, tyre management was the order of the day as the banked Rockingham circuit is tough on the Dunlop rubber.

Aron Smith (left), Mat Jackson (centre) and Gordon Shedden (right)

At the chequered flag it was an impressive victory for Mat Jackson and the Motorbase Performance team, his Ford Focus arriving at Parc Fermé with a punctured front right tyre! Gordon Shedden finished 2nd for Honda Yuasa Racing which was an excellent result considering his grid penalty. Aron Smith finished 3rd to complete the podium places with Jack Goff a well-deserved 4th. Matt Neal looked set to finish 5th however a puncture on the last lap dropped him down to 8th with Tom Ingram taking 5th ahead of Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington. Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff rounded out the top 10.

With the grid for the second race being determined by the fastest lap time from race one, Gordon Shedden will start in pole position alongside the WIX Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class of Adam Morgan. Mat Jackson will start on row 2 alongside Jack Goff with Eurotech Racing's Jeff Smith on row 3 with Colin Turkington. Despite finishing 27th in the first race, Jason Plato posted the 12th fastest lap time and will start race two on the 6th row of the grid. Will Plato be able to rescue his championship campaign in the second race? We'll find out soon when the BTCC action resumes at Rockingham.

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