Unsurprisingly, both of the MG drivers Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff took full advantage of the track layout, as they dominated qualifying yet again to lock out the front row of the grid. With the championship battle still very tight, Plato's pole position gave him the perfect opportunity to close the gap on the other championship contenders, especially with championship leader Andrew Jordan only managing to qualify 10th on the grid.
There were no prizes for guessing who took the victory in the first race of the day, with Plato and Tordoff pulling away from the grid fairly quickly, even with the safety car within the first few laps of the race. The biggest surprise of the race was the man who completed the podium - step forward Matt Neal, who going into the race was fourth in the standings and, to make matters worse, was suffering from a broken finger over the weekend. Surely it’s about time that he stopped breaking bones around this time of the year? There was also a strong finish for Colin Turkington, with the eBay Motors drivers finishing 4th to keep his slim championship hopes alive, while championship leader Jordan finished 6th to help reduce the damage inflicted by Plato in terms of points.
After his dominance in race 1, Plato faced a much more difficult task to stay ahead of the pack, after picking up maximum ballast and having two Honda's much closer to him on the grid than in race 1. The ballast took effect as the race progressed, as team mate Tordoff, who had 36kg on his car, dropped down to 4th at the chequered flag. Plato, however, had managed to just keep his nose ahead of the rest, but there was no way that it was an easy victory for the MG driver, as he was chased down by championship leader Jordan, who had to settle for second place after a great display of pure bumper to bumper touring car racing. Considering Jordan admitted at the end of the weekend that Silverstone was the team's "worst track" he was proving that even the underdogs can get good results, something that was vital for him if he was going to maintain his lead at the top of the championship.
As usual, the reverse grid draw for race 3 often shakes up the grid, and there are a number of surprises that tend to occur due to the draw. For the final race of the day, it was Matt Neal who was promoted to pole position, giving him the perfect opportunity to claw back some points over Jordan and, more importantly, Plato. It was Neal's team mate Gordon Shedden however who had the better race. The Scotsman had a fairly quiet weekend up until this point, where he stormed his way from 7th on the grid to take the final victory, and highlight once more that he was not out of the title fight just yet. Neal finished third, yet another strong finish despite fighting through the pain barrier, while Jordan finished a solid 5th.
So after a topsy turvy weekend, Andrew Jordan held on to his strong lead at the top of the championship table on 378 points. His nearest challenger is Matt Neal, who lies second in the standings, but is a huge 34 points behind Jordan. Just a point behind him is his Honda team mate and reigning champion Gordon Shedden. Colin Turkington is 4th on 330 points, with MG driver Plato in 5th; although both Turkington and Plato have effectively ruled themselves out of a realistic title challenge this season. With the Brands finale almost upon us, it’s certainly going to be another exciting race for the 2013 driver's title.
Photo credit: Phil Laughton Photography
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