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British Touring Car Championship
Thruxton - Race 1 Report - 4/5/14

By MJP Media | 4 May 2014

Andrew Jordan takes victory as Honda lock out the podium in total domination of the first race from Thruxton. Mat Jackson gives Airwaves Racing a great 4th place in the Ford Focus.

Andrew Jordan celebrates his first BTCC Thruxton victory

The Bank Holiday weekend sunshine beamed down on the massive crowd in the Hampshire heathland as the cars lined up for the first Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Thruxton. Honda had dominated all the practice and qualifying sessions of the weekend so far and it was championship leader Andrew Jordan on pole for Pirtek Racing ahead of Honda Yuasa Racing team-mates Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal. Equal championship leader Jason Plato started in 6th with a lot of work to do. In an effort to get the most out of the day, Plato had even put a line on the pit wall and one on his window so that he could be right at the front of his box without sneaking over the line.

Thruxton is a circuit where slipstreaming can have a major effect so the start was always going to be important. As the lights went out it was a perfect start for Mat Jackson in the Airwaves Racing Ford Focus ST who moved up to second ahead of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden whilst Rob Collard blasted up to 5th. Without any ballast on board, Jackson was all over the back of Andrew Jordan's Civic at the end of the first lap and these two plus Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden started a breakaway on lap 2 with only a 10th of a second separating them.

The battle for the lead

In the middle of the field, everyone was bunched up and there was a big collision between James Cole and Warren Scott coming into the chicane but this did not require the safety car to be deployed as both cars managed to re-join the track. By lap 5, Andrew Jordan had taken a slight lead whilst Matt Neal was forcing Mat Jackson to defend his position. The stewards announced that there would investigations into false starts by Tom Ingram, Alain Menu and Sam Tordoff.

At the halfway stage, it was Andrew Jordan out front on his own by over a second followed by Mat Jackson, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden nose to tail. There was then a further gap back to Rob Collard in the eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport. The drama then started as both Neal and Shedden were able to pass Jackson to go 2nd and 3rd and they then set about hunting down race leader Andrew Jordan. Behind the top four, Rob Collard, Jason Plato, Alain Menu, Colin Turkington, Adam Morgan and Sam Tordoff completed the top ten.

James Cole and Warren Scott had a big collision

As the race moved into the last third, the eBay Motors BMWs seemed to be holding up better than most as the special Dunlop tyres started to fade. Rob Collard in 5th was holding a lead over Jason Plato in 6th and in 8th place, Colin Turkington was catching Alain Menu in the Volkswagen CC. With 3 laps to go, Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic was holding a 3.7 second gap over the two Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Tourers of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden with Mat Jackson a lonely 4th, unable to challenge them.

The last lap saw Jason Plato trying to get past Rob Collard but without success. At the end it was a convincing win for Andrew Jordan with Matt Neal in 2nd and Gordon Shedden 3rd making it a Honda lockout on the podium. Mat Jackson was 4th with Rob Collard 5th. Jason Plato finished 6th with Alain Menu 7th, Colin Turkington 8th, Adam Morgan 9th and Sam Tordoff 10th. These positions are of course subject to the jump start enquiries. Andrew Jordan now has a 9 point lead in the championship ahead of Gordon Shedden with Jason Plato a further 4 points behind, just 1 point ahead of Matt Neal. Amazingly this was Jordan's first ever BTCC win at Thruxton. It is still all to play for in the next two races this afternoon and we will bring you all the action.

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