First ever BTCC victory for Tom Boardman

Tom Boardman claimed his first ever British Touring Car Championship victory in the final race of the weekend at Knockhill despite hard pressure from Rob Collard.
“This was the hardest race I’ve done here, fantastic,” said Boardman.

There was a lot of controversy in the race with two of the incidents involving race winner Boardman.

Jason Plato held pole position and kept the lead for the first two laps under hard pressure from Boardman. The SEAT driver got alongside the Chevrolet driver in a drag race over the main straight for the first corner. Boardman touched the back of Plato, resulting in a spectacular spin for Plato off track in to retirement.

The second incident involved Boardman in the safety car restart after Plato’s off. Boardman slowed right down in the final corner as the safety car was pulling off, resulting in a traffic jam behind. BTCC newcomer Aron Smith was one of the victims, retiring on the spot after running in to the back of team mate James Nash.

The safety car was brought out once again, but this time with a clean restart.

Frank Wrathall secured his second straight podium finish in third ahead of Honda duo Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden in fourth and fifth. Shedden keeps the lead of the championship, but with just one point over team mate Neal.

Race one winner Tom Chilton finished sixth ahead of Andrew Jordan and Tom Onslow-Cole. Nick Foster and Alex MacDowall rounded off the top ten.

The third and final race of the day confirmed the disaster weekend for previous championship leader Mat Jackson who retired from all three races. Jackson retired on lap 23 after hitting the back of Chilton’s Ford Focus in the braking for the final corner.