Brands Hatch BTCC: Plato wins as Jordan crash sends title to wire

Plato's Triple Eight MG made a great start in the wet and led from start to finish, but there was chaos behind.

First, title contender Gordon Shedden's Honda Civic had a huge slide at the first corner. Somehow everyone missed him, but it dropped the reigning champ into the middle of the pack.

On lap two, Jordan attacked Rob Collard for fifth at Paddock. There was contact, but Jordan backed out of it, allowing Collard to retain the position and Matt Neal (Honda Civic) to close on both.

Aron Smith's Motorbase Ford Focus got a great run on all of them, getting ahead of both Hondas.

Smith then clashed with Collard at Surtees and as Jordan tried to avoid the spinning BMW he and Neal touched, breaking the left-rear suspension of Jordan's Eurotech machine.

He made it as far as Hawthorns before spinning and eventually retiring, his first non-score of 2013.

Neal made it back to the pits, but would end his race on fire. That means he is now out of the title hunt.

Up at the front, Plato led Sam Tordoff to an MG one-two in the wet, while Mat Jackson overtook Motorbase team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole early on and drove off into a race of his own to complete the podium.

Adam Morgan's Toyota Avensis briefly got up to fourth, but a mistake at Paddock dropped him back and eventually Dave Newsham's similar machine came through to secure the position after a fine drive.

Smith was fifth, ahead of an impressive Jack Goff. The Team Hard Vauxhall Insignia driver battled with a recovering Shedden before pulling clear in the later stages to finish sixth.

With 22 points on offer in the final race, Jordan still leads Plato by 15 points, but will have to start the finale from the back.

An eighth place would secure the Eurotech Honda driver the title, irrespective of where Plato finishes.

Reigning champion Shedden is 20 points behind Jordan, so also remains in mathematical contention and will start the finale from pole, but Neal and Colin Turkington are now out of the running for the crown.

Results - 15 laps:

Pos Driver              Car                  Time/Gap 
 1. Jason Plato         MG                 26m29.773s
 2. Sam Tordoff         MG                    +0.906s
 3. Mat Jackson         Motorbase Ford        +5.691s
 4. Dave Newsham        Speedworks Toyota     +8.062s
 5. Aron Smith          Motorbase Ford        +9.734s
 6. Jack Goff           Hard Vauxhall        +16.855s
 7. Gordon Shedden      Honda                +18.797s
 8. Adam Morgan         Ciceley Toyota       +21.534s
 9. Tom Onslow-Cole     Motorbase Ford       +24.383s
10. Frank Wrathall      Dynojet Toyota       +25.819s
11. Jake Hill           Austin Audi          +26.934s
12. Colin Turkington    WSR BMW              +31.916s
13. Ollie Jackson       Speedworks Toyota    +32.805s
14. Rob Collard         WSR BMW              +42.518s
15. Aiden Moffat        Hard Volkswagen      +50.562s
16. Lea Wood            Wood Vauxhall        +50.625s*
17. Shaun Hollamby      AmD Volkswagen     +1m11.535s*
18. Nick Foster         WSR BMW                +1 lap

Retirements: 

     Matt Neal           Honda             14 laps
     Daniel Welch        Welch Proton      12 laps
     Rob Austin          Austin Audi       9 laps
     Warren Scott        BMR Volkswagen    5 laps
     Tom Barley          Hard Vauxhall     4 laps
     Andrew Jordan       Eurotech Honda    1 lap
     Liam Griffin        Motorbase Ford    1 lap

* S2000