3 – Plato and Jordan duke it out at Silverstone
One of the 2013 season’s most memorable dices came at Silverstone, with a former champion and a champion in waiting duking it out for victory in round 26 of the year.
Jason Plato was having a strong weekend at Silverstone after a record-breaking pole position and race one victory the following day, after which he took the early lead in race two.
The real threat was to come from the Honda of points leader Andrew Jordan, starting sixth but on the softer Dunlop tyre compound for the second race, an inspired choice in the end as he charged past Matt Neal’s Honda on an early restart exiting Copse before repeating the move shortly afterwards on Colin Turkington’s BMW.
Jordan powered past the second KX Momentum Racing MG6 of Sam Tordoff again with superior grip exiting Copse on lap 11, before setting off after Plato for the lead.
A two-second lead was diminished in a flash, and Jordan began attacking Plato for the win with five laps to go. The blue Civic squeezed inside the MG heading into Becketts to grab the lead, but the double champion took it back with the assistance of a ‘helpful’ nudge into the rear of Jordan’s car coming into Luffield.
The pair rubbed panels heading down the main straight, where Jordan spent the final four laps working over his rival for payback. Plato’s last lap defence was stern enough to hang on and take the win from Jordan, while Aron Smith – also on softer tyres – would have wished for an extra lap as he joined the top three in a rush to the line, just 0.410s covering the trio.
“Of the 80 wins that I’ve had, that’s one of the hardest I’ve had to work for. It was an incredible battle with Andrew”, said Plato afterwards. “I needed to just suss out where I had to defend in the last few laps.”
(Photo Credit: btcc.net)
