Before the opening race of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship event sponsored by Lokring Northern (UK), a fitting tribute was observed with impeccable respect in memory of the late, great Jack Sears – the inaugural winner of the British Saloon Car Championship way back in 1958, which has evolved into the current BTCC Championship we see on track today. Gentleman Jack, as he was affectionately known throughout the paddock will be a huge lose to both the BTCC and British motorsports communities.
Jason Plato had secured a memorable pole position on Saturday ahead of today’s opening race. If truth be told, Plato never really looked in danger of losing race one after a strong start. He did a little bit of backing up at the Hairpin on opening lap to keep the impressive Ingram at bay, but from that point on he coasted to victory, despite late pressure from Jack Goff following a late safety car period for the removal of Warren Scott’s stricken BMR Subaru following a collision with Dan Welch at Scotsman Corner.
So, with two of the three elements pretty much sewn up, Plato turned his attention to scoring the fastest lap time. He duly obliged with a lap to eclipse the current lap record (52.094s) before overhauling it with his next effort on lap six of the race with a sensational time of 51.990secs. That would have heralded a fairytale story for Plato on his 500th BTCC outing, but the impressive Colin Turkington who moved from P5 on the grid to P3 with a number of impressive, and more importantly, clean moves on Andrew Jordan and Tom Ingram, stole the thunder from his teammate by further improving the lap record time to 51.982 to reclaim the record he had held around Knockhill since 2014.
Jack Goff had an impressive outing behind the wheel of his WSR BMW, overtaking his teammate Sam Tordoff on his way to a popular podium, but race one well and truly belonged to Plato.
“Before the weekend I wasn’t really getting caught up with the whole 500 race thing, but looking now it’s a really nice thing to have done.
“It’s been great to see the Team BMR car win races with the other guys, as for me this season, the chips just haven’t fell my way… but perhaps this is a turning point,” commented Plato.
For all the latest updates from the BTCC Championship see the official BTCC website.
