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British Touring Car Championship
Silverstone - Race 1 Report - 27/9/15

By MJP Media | 27 September 2015

Mat Jackson continues his dominance at Silverstone with a lights-to-flag victory for Motorbase Performance. Gordon Shedden finishes 2nd to bolster his championship campaign as Jason Plato suffers a puncture.

Mat Jackson takes his 2nd victory of the season

Following his dominant performance in both free practice sessions and the subsequent qualifying session yesterday, Mat Jackson lined up in pole position for the first BTCC race of the day at Silverstone having set a new qualifying lap record around the National Circuit. The Motorbase Performance driver has now claimed two qualifying pole positions in a row with his Ford Focus and raises the question of where the team would be in the championship had they not sat out the first half of the season.

Joining Mat Jackson on the front of the front of the grid was Gordon Shedden who qualified 2nd with JCT600 Racing with GardX's Sam Tordoff and MG 888 Racing's Andrew Jordan on row 2. Dave Newsham started on row 3 for Power Maxed Racing alongside defending BTCC champion Colin Turkington in the Team BMR RCIB Insurance. Currently 2nd in the championship standings, Jason Plato qualified 10th and started on row 5 ahead of arch rival Matt Neal who is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his BTCC debut which was at Silverstone.

Mat Jackson in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus

Mat Jackson got a good start to the race, however behind him 2nd placed starter Gordon Shedden in the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R was immediately under pressure from Sam Tordoff. Andrew Jordan was also on a charge and had climbed to 2nd place by the end of lap 2 as Shedden dropped to 3rd and Sam Tordoff to 4th. Elsewhere, Jack Goff was forced to pit on lap 2 from 8th place to enable his team to check his steering. Goff re-joined the race in last place.

With Mat Jackson holding a 2 second lead, Gordon Shedden was defending his 3rd place behind Andrew Jordan despite the best efforts of Sam Tordoff in 4th. The top 6 cars held their positions and continued to circulate in the same order until Tordoff started to lose places on lap 17, allowing Dave Newsham up into 4th place ahead of Colin Turkington in 5th and Aron Smith in 6th. Tordoff continued to lose places over the following laps to Rob Collard, Matt Neal and Tom Ingram.

Mat Jackson celebrates his victory in race 1

At the chequered flag it was a resounding victory for Mat Jackson and the Motorbase Performance team. Andrew Jordan held on to finish 2nd, 2.138 seconds behind Jackson with Gordon Shedden 3rd just 0.187 seconds down. Dave Newsham finished 4th in his Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet Cruze with Colin Turkington picking up valuable championship points in 5th. Aron Smith completed the top 6 places. Jason Plato's weekend went from bad to worse when, after running around the top 10 for most of the race, he pulled up on lap 22 with a puncture and was classified 25th and out of the points.

With the first of today's three races completed, Gordon Shedden has extended his lead in the championship to 21 points over Jason Plato who is now only 13 points ahead of Matt Neal. With the grid for the second race being determined by the fastest lap times in race one, Mat Jackson again starts from pole position, this time accompanied by Jack Goff on the front row. Andy Priaulx and Aron Smith will start on row 2 with Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan on row 3. Team BMR RCIB Insurance team-mates Jason Plato and Colin Turkington will start on row 6. Will Plato be able to rescue his championship chances? We'll know the answer very soon.

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