BTCC: Plato, Neal and Jackson winners at Knockhill, Tordoff is the new leader

After Subaru’s Jason Plato claimed his 95th BTCC win in the first race of the seventh round of the 2016 British Touring Car Champioship at Knockhill Racing Circuit, Matt Neal (Halfords Yuasa Honda Civic Type R) and Mat Jackson (Motorbase Performance Ford Focus) took the wins in other two races at Scottish 1.2-mile long circuit.

59th BTCC victory for Matt Neal

Jason Plato started from pole in Race 2 and led until lap 25 of 27, when Matt Neal made a decisive mode on the way to his 59th career victory. Neal started 8th on the grid and made the biggest progress among leading drivers. Sam Tordoff also passed Plato together with Neal, to score the podium which put him into the championship lead after 20 races.

In the action-packed race we saw numerous overtakings all over the field, with positions inside the Top 10 changing in every lap. At the end, Colin Turkington was the first behind podium scorers, with Rob Collard followed him in the fifth place. Mat Jackson finished sixth, ahead of Jack Goff and Andrew Jordan. The defending champion Gordon Shedden, who was driving ahead of home Scottish crowd, was again ninth, same as in the race 1. Another Scotsman, Aiden Moffat, completed the top 10 in the second race.

Victory and two podiums for Plato at Knockhill

Mat Jackson’s 29th BTCC win

The reverse grid lottery for the Race 3 put Mat Jackson on the pole position and he converted this position into the victory, leading from start to chequered flag.

Rob Collard and Colin Turkington were behind Jackson at the start and remained there for the opening two laps, when the race was interrupted with Safety car intervention due to Sutton’s off-road. After the restart Collard and Turkington collided and both went to the gravel. Their misfortune promoted Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato to the podium positions.

There were no more changes among the leaders, so Jackson scored his fourth wins of the season, ahead of Tordoff and Plato. After two podiums at Knockhill Tordoff is the championship leader, ahead of Matt Neal, who finished fifth in the race 3, behind teammate Gordon Shedden.

After 21 races, Tordoff has 231 points, nine more than Matt Neal. Rob Collard, who came to Scotland as the leader, dropped to third. He has 199 points, eight more than Shedden.

Click the full results of the Knockhill races

Photos: btcc.net