Jason Plato has snatched a dramatic victory in the final BTCC race at Rockingham as he denied Tom Ingram a first win in the championship.
Ingram, who still took his first BTCC podium had lead the early stages and had a great battle with Plato. He certainly wasn’t going to make it easy for the experienced Plato.
Plato, who had started fourth on the grid, quickly passed Turkington and Goff off the start to immediately close on Ingram. Turkington and Goff then made contact at the hairpin, spinning Goff to the rear of the field.
Plato made his first attempt to pass Ingram on lap four as he moved up the inside at the first hairpin but Ingram was determined to try and hang on and kept ahead as they entered Yentwood.
Aron Smith was another BMR driver on the move as he passed Cook, Morgan and Jackson in the opening laps.
A safety car was scrambled on lap seven when Hunter Abbott and Mike Bushell made contact leaving the Focus of Bushell in the gravel after the Deene hairpin.
Abbott had an even heavier accident later in the race, also going into the hairpin after a tyre failure sent him into the path of Aiden Moffatt, heavily damaging both cars and bringing out the safety car for the second time.
On the restart, Plato was closer than ever to Ingram and tired to pass again into the Deene Hairpin but Ingram again denied him. On the next lap, Plato made his third attempt n Ingram and this time passed him, but still Ingram hung on and dived down the inside at Gracelands which caused a huge cheer both from Ingram’s garage and the huge crowd in the stands opposite.
Sadly for Ingram, when Plato tried yet again on lap fourteen, he had nothing left and Plato edged into a lead he wasn’t to lose.
Turkington then fancied stealing second but Ingram wasn’t about to let a second BMR car beat him and held him off for a joyful second place.
Neal was fourth with Tordoff finally giving WSR something to cheer about as he fought from fourteenth to fifth place taking Smith’s BMR VW in the closing stages.
Seventh was Rob Austin, having a much better time than his team mate Abbott but still it was a long way from 2014’s win. Shedden took eighth, enough to hold onto the championship lead despite Plato’s win with Jordan ninth and Jake Cook tenth. The tenth place means that Cook will win the Jack Sears trophy for 2015 as he is now uncatchable by any of his rivals in the final two meetings.
Depper was eleventh from WSR stand in Foster in twelfth, Andy Priaulx takes back his car at Silverstone. Alex Martin was thirteenth from Motorbase duo, Jackson and Cole in fourteenth and fifteenth.
Other incidents included Dan Welch who had a heavy crash into the oval wall and Derek Palmer was spun off early on.
As the championship heads to Silverstone in three weeks, Shedden leads Plato by eight points with Neal twenty one points off Plato. Turkington is six points further back and is probably the final driver with a realistic shot at the title. Jordan is fifth but is forty six points off the lead.
Tickets are available in advance from the Silverstone website or can be brought on the gate.
Full results from today are available on TSL timing;
Race three
Full event By Marc Waller
