Mat Jackson dominates opening race at Brands Hatch
Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson continued his recent race one dominance by leading from lights to flag at Brands Hatch, with both Colin Turkington and Jason Plato slightly narrowing the championship gap to Gordon Shedden.
The top three on the grid were the top three at the end in a race punctuated by two safety cars, with Team BMR’s Aron Smith tracking Jackson throughout in second and Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan coming home third.
But the main talking point came immediately behind, with Team BMR’s Turkington and Plato both passing Honda Yuasa Racing’s Shedden on lap one – the latter after a firm tap to the rear of the Civic Type-R at Surtees.
Shedden’s gap to Plato is down one to 22, with Turkington now 29 points behind in third.
Matt Neal followed team-mate Shedden home in seventh, with Andy Priaulx, Josh Cook and Rob Collard rounding out the top 10. Neal also still retains an outside chance of the title.
All the drama happened on the opening lap, with Turkington making a better start than Shedden and passing into Paddock Hill. Plato then trailed the Honda all the way until Surtees, where he made contact and slipped up the inside.
Power Maxed Racing’s Dave Newsham went off into the gravel on the entry to Hawthorn before Team Parker Racing’s Alex Martin had a hefty front-end impact with the barrier exiting the same corner, triggering the first safety car.
After the restart, JWT Performance’s Stewart Lines went off at Surtees on lap five, triggering another four-lap safety car period.
Very little incidents of note occured during the remaining laps, with Plato seemingly driving a steady race to prevent Shedden setting a fast laptime for the race two grid.
Triple Eight Racing’s Andrew Jordan was one of four drivers to pit in search of a good laptime for race two, formally dropping out of the championship running in the process. He was joined by team-mate Jack Goff, Tom Ingram and Alain Menu, with the Swiss’ bid curtailed by mechanical issues.
