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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (Indy) - Race 1 Report - 30/3/14

By MJP Media | 30 March 2014

Andrew Jordan starts the 2014 BTCC season with a perfect pole, fastest lap and leading the first race from start to finish at Brands Hatch.

Andrew Jordan enjoying his victory with Matt Neal and Jason Plato

The competitors for round 1 of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch lined up in warm spring sunshine - a stark contrast to last year's snow and sleet. There were 5 former champions in the first 5 places on the grid with new boy Tom Ingram the highest of the rest in 6th in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis. Defending champion Andrew Jordan on pole in the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic had quite a long wait as the massive 30 car field formed up behind him. Marc Hynes retired to the pit lane on the formation lap in his MG6.

Into Paddock Hill bend, it was Andrew Jordan from Jason Plato followed by Colin Turkington, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden. Plato was very clever in cutting off the fast-starting Turkington into the corner by tucking up to the side of Jordan in an elegant pincer move which blocked in the eBay Motors BMW. At the end of lap 1 it was Andrew Jordan in the lead from Jason Plato and Matt Neal. Tom Ingram had an average start and slipped back to 10th. Rob Austin in the Exocet Racing Audi A4 was a man on an early charge and by lap 5 was up to 6th from 11th on the grid.

Andrew Jordan led the race from start to finish

There was a massive battle in the midfield where Mat Jackson in the Airwaves Racing Ford Focus ST had a coming together with former team-mate Aron Smith and as a result went off, slipping back to 16th. Out in front, the leaders had opened a small gap with Andrew Jordan continuing in the lead with Jason Plato 2nd, Matt Neal 3rd, Colin Turkington 4th and Gordon Shedden 5th. On lap 10 there was the first of the new 'driving standards flags for exceeding the track limits' which went to Airwaves Racing's Fabrizio Giovanardi. Aron Smith was having a great race in his new car, a Chrome Edition Restart Racing Volkswagen CC, in 7th with Rob Collard behind him in 8th and Tom Ingram 9th.

At the halfway stage, Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato had developed a lead at the front and on lap 13 Gordon Shedden was able to get up the inside of Colin Turkington to go 4th behind his Honda Yuasa Racing team-mate Matt Neal. Lap 15 saw the first major coming together when Martin Depper took out James Cole going into Druids when he misjudged his braking point, putting Cole out of the race with broken rear offside suspension. On Lap 17 Turkington started to slow with some damage from Shedden's earlier robust overtake whilst Rob Austin was able to take 5th place on lap 18. As tyres started to go off, several more drivers were given the driving standards flag, including Tom Ingram and Jack Clarke.

Jason Plato was happy to finish the race in 2nd place

As the race moved towards its end, Colin Turkington was being forced to defend his position from team-mate Rob Collard and Aron Smith for 5th place. Lap 22 saw Andrew Jordan start to lap the back markers which allowed Jason Plato to catch up to him. When the last lap arrived he wasn't close enough to make a move so it was a victory for Andrew Jordan with Jason Plato half a second behind. Matt Neal finished 3rd ahead of Gordon Shedden in 4th, however they were 9 seconds further back. Rob Austin took a well-deserved 5th place with Rob Collard 6th and Aron Smith 7th having both passed Colin Turkington on the last lap. Colin Turkington, Tom Ingram and Sam Tordoff completed the top 10.

Reigning BTCC champion Andrew Jordan has made the perfect start to his title defence, having gained maximum points from the first race of the season with pole position, fastest lap, leading the race and of course his lights-to-flag race win. Can the other teams make a comeback in race 2? Find out here this afternoon!

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