Jason Plato celebrated his 500th BTCC race in style at Knockhill, first by claiming pole and then going on to win it. It was a strong lights-to-flag victory, although a charge by Jack Goff did gradually start eating into his lead, which was then completely eradicated by a late-race safety car. Wily Jason held on though, to score his 95th career victory and underline what a BTCC stalwart he's been over the past 20 years.
BTCC taking a lead from synchronised diving
He also added yet another name to the list of winners in 2016: yes, remarkably, this was Plato's first victory in the
Silverline Subaru
. The car's been quick for a while now, since its early season nadir, but it's been teammate Colin Turkington taking the wins. At Knockhill, the Northern Irishman had to settle for third in race one. Three cheers for Dave Newsham standing in for Emmerdale's Kelvin Fletcher too: he arrived, stuck it in the top 10 for qualifying and then followed up with a seventh place in the race. Storming work, sir.
Further back, there was more action: Neal received a verbal warning for a, er, robust move on Adam Morgan, while Dan Welch decided to baptise his new Proton with a stab at Warren Scott (that's what caused the late safety car); he too received a verbal warning. Scott suffered a torrid time in fact, going on to be whacked off the circuit four more times in the following two races (yes, he was counting). That was all just a warm-up though: the dust took far longer to settle after a breathless round 20 (and the need for extra supplies of duct tape to prepare for race three). As race one winner, Jason Plato actually led the majority of the race, but that only gave more time for the blood of those chasing him to boil over.
Soft tyre worked well for Matt Neal
Jack Goff and Colin Turkington were the first to exchange paint, helping Matt Neal's charge up through the grid from eighth place: the soft tyres were working for him and he was the man on the move. At least that solved the tricky issue of Turkington fighting teammate Plato: Sam Tordoff and JP were left to scrap it out and inevitably they too held each other up - and, as they scrabbled coming out of the hairpin, Neal pounced and had them both. He held on and grabbed a fine win, with Tordoff second and Plato third, just ahead of Turkington and, a hair's breadth behind, Rob Collard in the BMW 125i - indeed, this was even more of a charge up through the grid, from a lowly 17th.
Lucky Mat Jackson was sixth; that's lucky Mat because British GT champ Jonny Adam pulled his name out the hat to give him pole for race three. He made another fine start and led the pack, with the gaggle following in close succession. Nine laps of this was clearly enough for third-placed Colin Turkington, who then made a rather ambitious move on Rob Collard for second. It didn't work, he clattered Collard into retirement and then trailed around to eventually finish a lowly 24th. Collard was incandescent, describing the move as amateurish, and the race stewards agreed: Turkington received a reprimand and two points for it.
Turkington and Collard clashed in race three
It was particularly galling for Collard as he was on the soft tyre Neal used to such good effect in race two: picking up the baton was Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato, with soft-tyre'd (and home favourite) Shedden in fourth. But remarkably, the inevitable then didn't become so: Jackson put in a faultless drive to hold off Tordoff and take the race by just 0.2 seconds, with Plato grabbing another podium and Shedden taking fourth ahead of Neal. It was Jackson's fourth win of the season, a fantastic effort that he understandably described as 'mega'.
"A rear-wheel drive car around Knockhill is hard to beat so when I saw Rob (Collard) go out, I thought 'great'. Then young Sam (Tordoff) came at us but I managed to hold him off... He drove a good race and fair play to him for the way he went about it." Good, close, clean racing in the BTCC and only a few tears by race end? Good work by them all. Jackson now finds himself fifth in the championship as well (albeit still, surprisingly, behind teammate Andrew Jordan in the independents' championship).
It's stealthy Sam Tordoff who leads though, with a strong 231 points against Neal's 222. The two are some way ahead of Rob Collard who's dropped back to third with 199 points, with Shedden on 191 and Jackson on 188. Dave Newsham? He came, he saw, he scored 16 points, which is 16 points more than Emmerdale's Kelvin Fletcher whom he was standing in for.
Another great weekend of racing!
Jack Sears
championship, Ash Sutton still leads by 24 points from Michael Epps; the latter is then 42 points ahead of Matt Simpson, who was the man of the weekend this time round. There was a minute's silence for the late, great Sears ahead of Sunday's races, as the entire BTCC community paid tribute to the well-liked inaugural champion.
It was perhaps therefore fitting that Plato took his 500th race with such a stylish victory, and followed it up with two more podium appearances. "Before this weekend I wasn't getting caught up in any of the numbers," he said. "You cast your mind back to where it all started - struggling in single seaters with no money, and doorstepping Sir Frank Williams. Five hundred races later and we're still winning." How many other racers get to say that?
Watch the video highlights
here
PHers are already discussing the action at Knockhill; join the conversation here.
Knockhill Race 1:
1st: Jason Plato (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)
2nd: Jack Goff (Team JCT600 Racing with GardX BMW)
3rd: Colin Turkington (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)
Knockhill Race 2:
1st: Matt Neal (Halfords Yuasa Racing)
2nd: Sam Tordoff (Team JCT600 Racing with GardX BMW)
3rd: Jason Plato (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)
Knockhill Race 3:
1st: Mat Jackson (Motorbase Performance)
2nd: Sam Tordoff (Team JCT600 Racing with GardX BMW)
3rd: Jason Plato (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)
Driver's championship
1: Sam Tordoff (231 points)
2: Matt Neal (222 points)
3: Rob Collard (199 points)
4: Gordon Shedden (191 points)
5: Mat Jackson (188 points)
Independent drivers' championship
1: Andrew Jordan (296 points)
2: Mat Jackson (271 points)
3: Tom Ingram (257 points)
4: Adam Morgan (240 points)
5: Rob Austin (219 points)
Jack Sears Trophy for rookies
1: Ash Sutton (314 points)
2: Michael Epps (290 points)
3: Matt Simpson (248 points)
4: Chris Smiley (183 points)
5: Mark Howard (176 points)
Previous rounds:
BTCC Brands Hatch Indy
BTCC Donington Park
BTCC Thruxton
BTCC Oulton Park
BTCC Croft
BTCC Snetterton
BTCC Knockhill
BTCC Rockingham
BTCC Silverstone
BTCC Brands Hatch GP