Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Jason Plato puts new MG on pole for first time in Donington Park British Touring Car round

Jason Plato gave the new MG6 its first British Touring Car pole in just its second meeting at Donington Park

The threat of rain brought the frontrunners out early to try and bank a time. After the rear-wheel-drive WSR BMWs of Tom Onslow-Cole and Rob Collard set the early pace, Plato struck with a blistering 1m10.604s effort that briefly put him nearly a second clear of the field.

"We looked at our weather forecaster and we knew we had to do it quickly," said the double champion.

Works Honda Civic drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, circulating together, then put in a sequence of flyers and edged towards Plato's mark. The best ultimately put Shedden into second, less than a tenth slower than the MG, while Neal was third.

Rain looked set to prevent improvements until Adam Morgan lost his Toyota at Redgate and brought out the red flags. That delay, combined with the rain abating, allowed several cars to improve in the final five minutes of the session.

Andrew Jordan's Eurotech Honda Civic and Collard pushed the Motorbase Ford Focus of Mat Jackson from fourth to sixth in the final moments, the trio being covered by 0.137s.

Dave Newsham could not repeat his free practice form, but a late improvement allowed him to take seventh in the ES Vauxhall.

Rob Austin was hampered by a broken spark plug on his NGTC Audi A4, which caused a misfire, but his early efforts still put him eighth.

Eurotech's Jeff Smith made it four Hondas in the top nine, while Aron Smith completed the top 10 in the second Motorbase Focus.

Pos  Driver           Team/Car           Time       Gap
 1.  Jason Plato      Triple 8 MG        1m10.604s
 2.  Gordon Shedden   Dynamics Honda     1m10.658s  + 0.054s
 3.  Matt Neal        Dynamics Honda     1m10.911s  + 0.307s
 4.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda     1m11.068s  + 0.464s
 5.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW            1m11.071s  + 0.467s
 6.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford     1m11.205s  + 0.601s
 7.  Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall        1m11.305s  + 0.701s
 8.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi        1m11.322s  + 0.718s
 9.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda     1m11.443s  + 0.839s
10.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford     1m11.568s  + 0.964s
11.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota     1m11.614s  + 1.010s
12.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW            1m11.654s  + 1.050s
13.  Daniel Welch     Welch Proton       1m11.954s  + 1.350s
14.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW            1m11.982s  + 1.378s
15.  Chris James      ES Vauxhall        1m12.067s  + 1.463s
16.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford     1m12.277s  + 1.673s
17.  Lea Wood         Wood Vauxhall      1m12.409s  + 1.805s
18.  Tony Gilham      Gilham Honda       1m12.594s  + 1.990s
19.  Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen     1m12.891s  + 2.287s
20.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota  1m13.016s  + 2.412s
21.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota  1m17.117s  + 6.513s
22.  John Thorne      Thorney Vauxhall   1m29.668s  + 19.064s
23.  Andy Neate       Triple 8 MG

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Dave Newsham close to Matt Neal's lap record in Donington's BTCC second practice
Next article Mat Jackson beats Gordon Shedden to win first BTCC race at Donington Park

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe