Sport   Motorsport   Touring Cars

British Touring Car Championship
Silverstone - Race 1 Report - 28/9/14

By MJP Media | 28 September 2014

Jason Plato wins the first race from Silverstone as an ecstatic Colin Turkington takes second place to bolster his title dreams.

Jason Plato on the podium after winning race 1 from Silverstone

The sun shone down at Silverstone as Jason Plato started his 450th BTCC race. From pole position, he had only one thing on his mind. He had to win at all costs to keep his championship hopes alive with Colin Turkington 2nd on the grid and leading him by 55 points in the race for the title. This is a massive points advantage with only 6 races left this year. Indeed, when interviewed on the grid Plato added "Colin is a world class driver and we have nothing to lose. If Colin wants to play, we'll have some fun!" Ominous words and all eyes were on these two at the front.

As the lights went out to start round 25, Colin Turkington got a sensational start to lead into the first corner as Mat Jackson took 3rd from Sam Tordoff. It looked like several of the cars may have jumped the start so the race stewards may be busy later. Things got more interesting as Hunter Abbott went off at Becketts on lap 1, causing yellow flags to be deployed at one of the main overtaking zones.

Colin Turkington losing the race lead to Jason Plato on lap 3

Jason Plato took the race lead at Brooklands on lap 3 with a slick manoeuver as Colin Turkington chose not to risk defending the place. On lap 4, Dan Welch went off leaving some debris on the track and a slippery surface, whilst Aiden Moffat got a warning on his birthday for exceeding the track limits. Plato maintained his lead but was unable to extend it from Turkington in 2nd, Mat Jackson 3rd, Sam Tordoff 4th and Alain Menu in 5th.

At the halfway stage, Dave Newsham in the AmD Tuning.com Ford Focus ST was the big winner, being up to 20th from 31st on the grid, whilst the Hondas were still struggling in the midfield. Adam Morgan was also having a good day, moving up to 6th in the Wix Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class. In a moment of hilarity on lap 12, the race officials ran out of room for driver numbers on the board warning them for exceeding track limits.

Jason Plato is delighted with his first win of the day

On lap 14 Adam Morgan retired the Mercedes from 6th place with mechanical issues and Tom Ingram tapped Gordon Shedden at Becketts, causing the Scotsman to lose four places. At the front the top 3, who were all running on the standard Dunlop tyre, were still running only half a second apart with Jason Plato unable to extend his lead. Into the closing stages there were no heroics from the front three and despite a moment of panic when they had to lap Simon Belcher's Toyota Avensis on the last lap, they came home in the same order, giving Jason Plato his 4th win of the season and his 86th overall BTCC race win ahead of Colin Turkington and Mat Jackson. 4th was Sam Tordoff with Alain Menu 5th. Aron Smith, Rob Collard, Marc Hynes, Rob Austin and Andrew Jordan rounded out the top 10.

In terms of the Drivers' Championship, Colin Turkington now has a 51 point lead over Jason Plato with only five races left. Gordon Shedden is now 80 points behind the championship leader, ending his hopes of the 2014 title. Plato will start race two on pole with Turkington second, however this time Plato will be carrying 9kg more success ballast than Turkington and to add spice to the mix, Turkington will also be on the soft Dunlop tyre! The race for the 2014 BTCC title certainly isn't over yet, so watch this space!

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media