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British Touring Car Championship
Silverstone - Race 1 Report - 29/9/13

By MJP Media | 29 September 2013

MG's qualifying dominance continues as they lead from start to finish in the first race at Silverstone with Jason Plato 1st, Sam Tordoff 2nd and Matt Neal 3rd. Dave Newsham spins out of 3rd and finishes 10th.

Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff celebrate their race one success

The penultimate race day of the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season dawned bright and clear with warm sunshine greeting the teams as they formed up on the grid for the first race. Jason Plato was in pole position in his MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 ahead of team-mate Sam Tordoff with Dave Newsham 3rd in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis.

As the lights went out it was an action packed start with Jason Plato leading from Sam Tordoff, however they both ran wide exceeding the track limits on the first corner which allowed Colin Turkington and Dave Newsham to get ahead of Tordoff. Newsham then spun out of third place and re-joined way back down in twelfth. In the melee that followed, Rob Collard was able to move up to 4th in his eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport.

Jason Plato on the way to the first BTCC win of the day

On lap three we had a number of the major offs with Will Bratt, Andy Neate and Nick Foster all involved, Neate and Foster being beached in the gravel on the start/finish straight and causing a safety car period which lasted for 4 laps. Will Bratt found the bonnet of his Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 up against his windscreen, forcing him to pit.

When racing resumed it was Jason Plato from Sam Tordoff, Colin Turkington, Rob Collard, Frank Wrathall, Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan. On Lap 8, Neal and Jordan took Wrathall, closely followed by Aron Smith. By the 11th lap, Plato and Tordoff had opened a small gap as the BMWs of Turkington and Collard came under pressure from Matt Neal. Neal then took Collard on lap 12 for 4th place. Collard was then under pressure from Andrew Jordan for several laps.

Matt Neal, Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff on the podium

Lap 15 saw Matt Neal take Colin Turkington for 3rd as the two MGs opened a 3 second gap over the field. The leaders maintained formation with the big battle being for 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. As the laps progressed, the MGs extended their lead with the cars behind finding it very difficult to pass each other. On lap 20, Dave Newsham passed Frank Wrathall to re-enter the top 10 behind Mat Jackson.

By lap 22, the MGs lead had extended to over 4 seconds ahead of Matt Neal in 3rd, with Colin Turkington still 4th and Rob Collard 5th. At the finish it was a victory for Jason Plato from Sam Tordoff with Matt Neal over 6 seconds behind in 3rd. Fourth was Colin Turkington with team-mate Rob Collard 5th and championship leader Andrew Jordon 6th. Adam Morgan was 7th with Aron Smith, Mat Jackson and Dave Newsham rounding out the top 10. Andrew Jordan still leads the championship on 348 points with Matt Neal 2nd on 319, Colin Turkington 3rd on 318 and Gordon Shedden 4th on 313. Jason Plato comes back into contention with 299 points and another 2 victories later today for the MG driver would certainly blow the championship race wide open!

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