Chevrolet continue Silverstone dominance

Mat Jackson led home an impressive Chevrolet 1-2-3 in the opening race at Silverstone, as the blue RML run machines dominated proceedings. Jason Plato took second, with James Nash rounding out the podium to take his best ever BTCC result, while Colin Turkington extended his championship lead by two points, thanks to finishing one place ahead of title rival Fabrizio Giovanardi.

With Chevrolet having been to the fore throughout Saturday’s practice and qualifying, it came as no surprise to see the race win heading to RML, with Rob Collard only briefly interrupting the ‘bluewash’ thanks to an excellent start in his BMW.

Lining up under overcast skies, pole sitter Jackson angled his car to the inside in a bid to take the lead from the off, but he could do nothing about Collard’s fast start that saw the Motorbase machine leap into the lead.

With Silverstone’s wide Grand Prix track giving the cars plenty of room to run three abreast from the start through the opening corners, it was a clean opening for the majority of the field, with Nash doing well to hold a big slide through Copse as his Lacetti was tapped from behind.

Behind Collard, Jackson followed in close attendance, with Plato and Nash behind him, while Stephen Jelley did his best to aid teammate Turkington’s title chances by dicing with Giovanardi, as the BMW and Vauxhall exchanged places throughout the opening laps.

The Italian would take a tighter line through the complex, getting past the Team RAC car out of Luffield and through Woodcote, but Jelley would fight back on the run through Copse and Maggots to be back in front by Becketts.

Collard’s lead was short lived, with Jackson muscling his way past at Brooklands on lap four, while behind Tom Onslow-Cole and Anthony Reid, in his first BTCC racing since 2004, ended their race deep in the gravel trap at the same corner.

The Ford Focus and BMW made contact on entry to the corner, with Reid sustaining a right rear puncture that spun him into retirement, while Onslow-Cole skipped across the gravel and into a big impact with the tyre wall.

Five laps behind the Safety Car ensued, until racing resumed on lap ten, with Jackson jumping early to pull out a big lead over Collard, who came under pressure from Plato and his Snetterton assailant Nash.

It was a matter of when, not if, the two Lacettis came past, with the when proving to be lap fifteen, as Plato and Collard ran side-by-side down the pit straight, before the former BTCC champion dived down the inside at Copse, followed through by Nash.

Having a quite race in fifth place was Turkington, who decided to join in the fun by getting alongside Collard out of Becketts, although the championship leader couldn’t make the move stick until next time through at Copse.

The Safety Car was back out a lap later as Martin Johnson’s Vauxhall expired at Copse, laying down some oil, but once again Jackson performed a text book re-start. Behind Jonny Adam slid wide on the oil, allowing Giovanardi up into sixth, with the double champion soon dispatching Collard to make that fifth.

With Plato coming under intense pressure from teammate Nash, Jackson could pull away to take his fourth win of 2009. Turkington and Giovanardi came home in fourth and fifth, with the BMW driver adding a potentially crucial two points to his total, to move onto 214 points in the championship.

Collard held on to sixth, with Jelley in seventh and Adam eighth, with Paul O’Neill and a quite Matt Neal rounding out the top ten.

In his first BTCC race, Johnny Herbert had a clean and uneventful run to 13th position, more than can be said for his Dynamics teammate David Pinkney who went off at Copse on the 23rd tour, this time terminally after an earlier rotation at Brooklands on the opening lap.