Monday, 30 April 2012

Thruxon Race One: Mat Jackson battles to victory in a rain-fuelled first race at Thruxton

Redstone Racing’s Mat Jackson has taken his second win of the year in monsoon like conditions in the first race of the day of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in Hampshire.
     Visibility was at the forefront of the drivers’ minds at the start of this race, as battering winds and rains continued to fall at the start line.
     Pirtek Racing’s Andy Jordan started on pole, and had a good start, however at the first corner, getting onto some standing water coupled with some light contact with Jason Plato led to the Pirtek Honda sliding onto the grass and into the barrier. The aftermath of this saw Plato also on the grass, whilst Mat Jackson came powering through into the lead, closely followed by Frank Wrathall in the Dynojet Toyota in second.
     With Dave Newsham closing to Frank Wrathall, taking the position through Noble, it was Tony Hughes who paid a visit to the barrier after a spin on some standing water off the racing line. After this first lap dilemmas, Jason Plato was now in fifth behind eBay driver Rob Collard – who was running in a slightly different race to the London Marathon he competed in just seven days before.
     Crossing the line into lap two, at Mat Jackson was leading Newsham by just under three seconds, whilst Aron Smith was running in 6th place and jostling for position with the second eBay BMW of Tom Onslow-Cole.
     Gordon Shedden, who had his fastest times removed from qualifying on Saturday due to a technical infringement, was now up to fourteenth having started from the rear of the grid. Team mate Matt Neal, who crashed out of qualifying was in twelfth.
     Lea Wood in the BINZ Racing Vauxhall Vectra was running well in eighth, whilst Tony Gilham was also having a strong race in tenth.
     With Collard now in fifth having been passed by Jason Plato in the MG, the eBay Motor’s driver was trying to make his move for fourth on Frank Wrathall. With the puddles offline, Collard kept tight going through the Chicane – with visibility getting worse and worse for the drivers on track.
     Back with the leaders, and Mat Jackson was still leading to Dave Newsham, who was maintaining a now 2.3 second gap in his ES Racing Vectra. Meanwhile Gordon Shedden – who by now had some heavy damage to his Honda - was now battling with Tony Gilham in Gordon’s 2011 race winning Civic for ninth place.
     Rob Austin, whose team had been working throughout the early hours to repair the damage to the Audi A4 after a serious impact in qualifying – was in the pits and had disappointingly retire from the race.
     The battle between Rob Collard and Frank Wrathall for fourth was heating up – with Wrathall pushing hard to take the place. A near-off for Frank after hitting a puddle allowed Rob to make a gap. Gordon Shedden was now into seventh place after passing Lea Wood for eighth, and was now on the tail of Tom Onslow-Cole in the eBay Motors’ BMW.
     Liam Griffin got onto some standing water on lap eleven of sixteen at Allard and had a serious impact with the tyre barrier – leaving a lot of damage to the front of the Redstone Racing Ford Focus. Just as Gordon Shedden past Onslow-Cole for sixth, having started from eighteenth, the safety car came out to collect the leaders. This would be a blow for the leaders as their gaps would be decreased upon the restart.
     The safety car remained out for a number of laps, with the lights finally going out on lap fourteen – with the race now increased to a nineteen lap race. However, just as the lights went out, they came back on again as Liam Griffin’s car was still in a dangerous position – with the recovery vehicle stuck in the mud and unable to move.
     The red flag was eventually brought out, which meant Mat Jackson took the win to Dave Newsham in his best ever finish in the BTCC – and the second podium for ES Racing in 2012 – with Jason Plato in third.
     The damage to Shedden’s car was from an incident on track, first with Rob Austin, who left the Honda Civic almost stranded on the track, when contact from Andy Neate’s KX Momentum Racing MG allowed him to get started again. Andy Jordan’s Civic also had some serious suspension damage after his first lap shunt.
     Tony Hughes did manage to get started again after his earlier incident, however ended his race on lap ten. Adam Morgan and Dan Welch also retired early on in the race.

Final Results:
1) Mat Jackson
2) Dave Newsham
3) Jason Plato
4) Rob Collard
5) Frank Wrathall
6) Gordon Shedden
7) Aron Smith
8) Tom Onslow-Cole
9) Lea Wood
10) Matt Neal
11) Tony Gilham
12) Ollie Jackson
13) Jeff Smith
14) Nick Foster
15) Chris James

Fastest Lap - Gordon Shedden - 1:24:565 - Lap 7

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