Jason Plato won the third and final race at RockinghamJason Plato takes his 93rd victory in the British Touring Car Championship at a lively race meeting at the Rockingham Motor Speedway
Jason Plato, Gordon Shedden and Mat Jackson have all chalked up victories today at Rockingham Motor Speedway, in the latest rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
The first race of the day saw Mat Jackson lead from start to finish, as the Motorbase driver piloted his Ford Focus away from pole position ahead of fellow front-row starter Aron Smith. Early in the race, Tom Ingram's Toyota Avensis was hit by the Chevrolet Cruze of Josh Cook, sending Ingram sideways and catching Plato in the crossfire.
Though Jackson was quickly well ahead of the pack, he reported a puncture with two laps to go to the finish. Despite that issue, Jackson managed to bring the Focus home to take his 22nd BTCC victory.
For race two it was a similar picture, as Shedden converted his pole position start into another victory with Jackson coming in second place.
However, the battle for third position was not so easily won, with Adam Morgan, Josh Cook and Matt Neal all jostling for the final podium slot. Cook finally prevailed after a drive which saw him make up a total of eleven places during the 16-lap race.
Plato again made steady progress through the field, but was initially hampered by soft tyres. A daring overtake on both Colin Turkington and Sam Tordoff on one corner prevailed, and along with another pass on Jack Goff was enough to give the championship leader seventh place.
A reversed grid for race three saw Tom Ingram sit on pole position, but the Speedworks Motorsport driver quickly found himself under pressure from Plato. Despite numerous advances, Ingram managed to hold onto his race lead initially, but Plato finally made his move stick with three laps of racing to go.
Ingram held on to second place - despite a safety car restart - claiming his first BTCC podium in the process, while Turkington took third place.
These latest results mean that Plato currently ranks first in the driver's championship, with 249 points. Second is Shedden on 238 points, just ahead of team-mate Neal on 227 points.
The next round of the British Touring Car Championship takes place at Silverstone on 26-27 September.
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