The 2013 British Touring Car Championship did not disappoint. Record grids of new-era NGTC machines, a tense battle for the championship, and a worthy new name to join the list of champions in Andrew Jordan lifting the title at the end of the season.
With the winter silly season now dawning on the motorsport world, we at TheCheckeredFlag now look back at some of the best moments from the action-packed BTCC season which kept onlookers twitching their fingers until the very end.
10 – Jordan and Plato’s last corner spat kicks off 2013
The drama started as early as round one of the 30-race championship, which concluded in messy fashion with a final corner altercation between Jason Plato and the eventual 2013 champion, Andrew Jordan.
Starting fom pole position, Jordan raced off into the early lead ahead of a fast-starting soft tyre-shod Audi of Rob Austin, while Gordon Shedden was forced to save a big tankslapper heading down Paddock Hill Bend while battling with Plato for the early track position.
Jordan’s lead did not even last one lap of the Indy circuit however, Austin lunging inside the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic at Clearways as Plato followed through advantageously.
Plato’s experience finally paid off on lap 14 of the race when his MG6, handling its tyres much better at this stage than the valiant Austin, found better traction heading into Druids to grab the lead, Jordan moving up to second place with a clinical move at Clearways only four laps later.
That move went to plan, but the one he would try on Plato was not so smooth, and proved to be one of very few mistakes that would appear on Jordan’s copybook for the the remainder of the season.
Jordan kept Plato honest at the front, and by the 27th and final lap had closed the gap to virtually nothing. The cars tipped through Surtees for the final time unchanged, but the Honda man took a lunge under braking at the final corner, contact inevitable.
Jordan slid through the gravel but recovered to second, Plato surviving the huge sideways moment initiated from the tag in the rear to also continue to the flag for victory, both having gapped Austin sufficiently enough to hang onto their positions despite the kerfuffle.
Proving a stark reminder that you don’t have to win them all, Jordan went on to finish 29 of the 30 races in 2013, a statistic that may well have been influenced by a more thoughtful head on the 24-year-old’s shoulders following this very race…
(Photo Credit: btcc.net)
