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Rockingham BTCC: Jordan takes championship lead after race-one win

Andrew Jordan now leads the British Touring Car Championship title race after scoring his fifth win of the year in race one at Rockingham

The Eurotech Honda driver made a storming start to surge from row two of the grid to lead by driving around the outside of Jason Plato's polesitting MG6 at the Deene Hairpin.

Jordan immediately began to pull away as Plato fought to fend off Gordon Shedden's Dynamics Honda around the first lap, while two separate incidents at Gracelands took out five cars in the midfield and meant the safety car was deployed for five laps while marshals cleared the wreckage.

Jordan aced the restart and rebuilt his lead as Plato defended again from Shedden while erstwhile points leader Matt Neal spun his Honda at Brook chicane just before the restart and tumbled from fifth to the back end of the order.

Reigning champion Shedden finally broke through Plato's defences exiting the Brook chicane on lap eight to take second, but he would not hold on.

Mat Jackson had already charged his Motorbase Focus up from 12th on the grid to sixth on the opening lap and was quickly past Plato too after the restart.

He grabbed second from Shedden when the Honda ran wide at Deene with five laps left and set off after Jordan, but he could not bridge the gap despite being quicker in the closing stages.

Rob Austin recovered from a poor opening lap to complete the podium. He fell from third on the grid to ninth on the first lap, but his Audi got stronger as the race wore on and he charged back through the order, outdragging Shedden's Honda out of the final corner to nick third spot on the line.

Plato's unwieldy MG held on to fifth, ahead of the WSR BMWs of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard, while the Speedworks Toyota of Dave Newsham just held off Jack Goff's Team HARD Vauxhall Insignia to finish eighth, with Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota) and Nick Foster (WSR BMW) in tow.

Neal recovered to grab two points for 14th place in his Honda, behind Smiths Jeff (Honda) and Aron (Ford), while Ollie Jackson's Toyota demoted front row starter Sam Tordoff's MG to a pointless 16th on the final lap.

Jack Sears Trophy leader Lea Wood's gamble on a green flag lap pitstop for slick tyres on his Vauxhall Vectra paid off. He overhauled the wet-shod Ford Focus of David Nye for S2000 class honours on the last lap.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos Driver            Team/Car               Time/Gap
 1. Andrew Jordan     Eurotech Honda         33m42.513s
 2. Mat Jackson       Motorbase Ford            +3.379s
 3. Rob Austin        Austin Audi               +9.071s
 4. Gordon Shedden    Honda                     +9.271s
 5. Jason Plato       MG                       +14.803s
 6. Colin Turkington  WSR BMW                  +19.462s
 7. Rob Collard       WSR BMW                  +22.542s
 8. Dave Newsham      Speedworks Toyota        +23.939s
 9. Jack Goff         Hard Vauxhall            +24.395s
10. Frank Wrathall    Dynojet Toyota           +25.319s
11. Nick Foster       WSR BMW                  +26.175s
12. Jeff Smith        Eurotech Honda           +29.083s
13. Aron Smith        Motorbase Ford           +29.358s
14. Matt Neal         Honda                    +34.337s
15. Ollie Jackson     Speedworks Toyota        +41.183s
16. Sam Tordoff       MG                       +42.843s
17. Howard Fuller     Hard Volkswagen          +43.372s
18. Andy Wilmot       Hard Volkswagen          +43.956s
19. Warren Scott      BMR Volkswagen         +1m19.408s
20. Lea Wood          Wood Vauxhall          +1m33.175s
21. David Nye         Welch Ford             +1m35.335s

Retirements:

    Tom Onslow-Cole   Motorbase Ford         1 lap
    Will Bratt        Austin Audi            0 laps
    Daniel Welch      Welch Proton           0 laps
    Adam Morgan       Ciceley Toyota         0 laps
    Liam Griffin      Motorbase Ford         0 laps
    Andy Neate        IP Tech Chevrolet      0 laps

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