The heat off the track on Sunday was a match for the heat on it as the BTCC returned, and that’s not something you can normally say in Britain. The weekends main stories surrounded Jason Plato and reigning champion Andrew Jordan but for completely different reasons.
For Jordan the weekend went from bad to worse to horrible and put a massive dent, 78 points to be exact, in his championship fight. It started on Saturday morning when a crash in FP1 left him with a small concussion and he was not cleared to qualify. He was forced to start race one from the pit lane. In race one he stayed out of trouble and finished in 16th, just outside of the points. In Race two, he was involved in contact with Jack Goff and spun round, this left him at the back of the grid again. Before he could even look forward to race three the medical team decided he would not be allowed to race on the grounds of exhaustion. It really was a weekend to forget for the normally “Mr. Consistent” Andrew Jordan.
Race one followed tradition as being the calmer of the three but still featured a lot of action. It was Jason Plato who led from start to finish with Colin Turkington close behind in second. The main battles were at the lower end of the grid but also Matt Neal and Adam Morgan had a close battle for third and for fourth with Neal coming out on top. Notable incidents were Rob Holland scoring points for the first time and Tom Ingram’s wheel fell off on the last lap due to a mechanical failure and continued his awful run of luck.
Race two had a more going on when Colin Turkington was able to get past Jason Plato, which saw a close battle between them which eventually went to Plato as Turkington didn’t fight too hard with championship points in mind and knowing the kind of racer Plato is. Alain Menu also had a trip off the road at the start of the race which lead to the safety car being brought out and the end of his race. Neal sticking to his word didn’t make it too difficult for championship contender teammate Gordon Shedden to pass, showing again the perfect team game Honda play. The most notable performance was from Plato’s teammate Sam Tordoff who started last after a mechanical failure in race one and went on to finish ninth which is incredibly impressive in a tough field.
Race three was the usual madness we expect from a reverse grid race. Number eight was drawn out meaning Aron Smith went onto pole and onto win his third career victory but was pushed, literally at some points, to the chequered flag by ex-team-mate Matt Jackson. Third for much of the race was Fabrizio Giovanardi, however after a mighty battle behind him including Turkington, Plato, Shedden and Morgan he was soon under pressure. That pressure came from Championship leader Turkington who managed to beat his championship rivals and force Gio into a mistake on the last lap which had his whole garage and fans screaming as he crossed the line for a hat-trick of podiums. During his bid to reach the podium he had the slightest contact with Neal which left him in a spin and Turkington in trouble.
Knockhill in Scotland is the next track we go to and should be EBay Motors’ strongest track especially as they got two wins there last year. But the stewards like to have their say so Turkington has been given an eight place grid drop. Where they got eight from I’m not sure but that’s the punishment. So he will have to push to have a chance to win race 2. His other team-mate Collard was given his third strike and will start from the very back of the grid in race one.
‘The fans would love to see the result on the track being the result of the race’ – Tim Harvey, speaking the mind of all fans in all motorsport currently.
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