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British Touring Car Championship
Rockingham - Race 3 Report - 6/9/15

By MJP Media | 6 September 2015

Jason Plato keeps his championship campaign on target with a thrilling victory in the last race from Rockingham. After an exciting battle with Plato, Tom Ingram takes an impressive 2nd place for Speedworks Motorsport.

Jason Plato wins the final race from Rockingham

With Gordon Shedden leading the Drivers' Championship by 20 points over Jason Plato, the reverse grid draw for the final race from Rockingham gave Tom Ingram pole position in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis with Jack Goff's MG 888 Racing MG 6GT 2nd on the front row of the grid. Colin Turkington started on the 2nd row alongside Team BMR RCIB Insurance team-mate Jason Plato with Rob Austin and Matt Neal on row 3. Adam Morgan started on row 4 alongside Josh Cook with Mat Jackson and Gordon Shedden on row 5.

The West Surrey Racing prepared BMW 125i M Sports had struggled around the Rockingham circuit all weekend however Rob Collard's day went from bad to worse when he had to be pushed off the track on the formation lap. Jack Goff went off the track at the Deene hairpin on the first lap but recovered to continue the race. Near the front, Jason Plato moved up to 2nd place, passing team-mate and defending BTCC champion Colin Turkington.

Race leaders: Jason Plato, Tom Ingram and Colin Turkington

On lap 3 race leader Tom Ingram came under attack from Jason Plato and a thrilling battle developed between them. Plato passed Ingram on lap 4 at the Deene hairpin only for Ingram to re-take the lead later in the lap. This battle allowed Colin Turkington to close up on Plato making it a 3-way challenge for the lead with Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan and Adam Morgan in pursuit of the leaders. The fight at the front continued with Tom Ingram unable to pull out a lead over Jason Plato. The Safety Car was deployed on lap 7 to recover Mike Bushell's AmDTuning.com Ford Focus and Hunter Abbott's Exocet AlcoSense Audi A4.

When racing resumed, so did the battle for the lead between Jason Plato and Tom Ingram. Once again Plato passed Ingram at the hairpin and once again Ingram re-took the place later in the lap. The battle continued for several laps with Ingram defending his position against the experienced Plato until Plato managed to take the lead on lap 12 only to lose it again to the hard-charging Ingram. Plato finally got the upper hand on lap 14, taking the lead and making it stick. After another Safety Car period to remove the cars of Dan Welch and Jeff Smith, racing resumed with just 2 laps remaining.

An emotional Tom Ingram can't quite believe his fantastic result

The dash to the finish saw no change at the front of the field with Jason Plato taking the victory for Team BMR RCIB Insurance ahead of Tom Ingram who held on to finish an impressive 2nd for the relatively small Speedworks Motorsport team. Colin Turkington completed the podium positions with Matt Neal 4th, Sam Tordoff 5th and Aron Smith 6th. Rob Austin, Gordon Shedden, Andrew Jordan and Josh Cook completed the top 10 in a race where only cars 19 finished.

Gordon Shedden now leads the Drivers' Championship with 286 points but thanks to his race 3 victory, Jason Plato is now just 6 points behind with 6 races remaining. Matt Neal is 3rd on 259 points with Colin Turkington on 253, Andrew Jordan on 240 and Sam Tordoff on 225. The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship now heads to the iconic Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire for its second visit to the county and the penultimate meeting of the 2015 BTCC season on the 26th and 27th of September.

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