Jason Plato has won the first of today’s three HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the Knockhill circuit in Scotland.
Oxford driver Plato led all the way in his Racing Silverline Chevrolet for his second win of the season. He also set the race’s fastest lap and has moved up to third in the standings ahead of Matt Neal who crashed out of the race.
And Plato later admitted: “My car had a battery problem half way through so I had to switch off the power steering from there on. But I thought it’d be a good opportunity to tell the team on the radio that the engine had died. There was silence from their end so I thought I’d then better tell them I was only joking!”
Finishing second much to the cheer of the home crowd was Scot Gordon Shedden in his Cartridge World team SEAT Leon. Third was Plato’s team-mate Mat Jackson.
Of the title protagonists, series leader Colin Turkington recovered to finish fourth in his Team RAC BMW having earlier been barged off the track and down to seventh. Reigning champion, Italian Fabrizio Giovanardi, second in the standings, was sixth after starting 11th on the grid in his Vauxhall Vectra.
It means that Turkington leads Giovanardi by the increased margin of 20 points going into this afternoon’s second race. Plato is third, 46 points (equivalent to three race wins) behind Turkington.
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