In many respects, Jason Plato was hoping that Thruxton was to be a turning point on the back of what had been a frustrating weekend at Donington Park a a fortnight previous. And with the reduction of the maximum boost limit by 0.1 bar being imposed during the build up to the weekend, things appeared to be shining on Plato and the normally aspirated cars in the field.

  Qualifying on Saturday however, gave a clear indication that the early season advantage in raw pace was well and truly still with the turbo powered machinery; Gordon Shedden taking his first pole of the season for the Honda Racing Team as a result, followed by the continuingly impressive Andrew Jordan in his Eurotech Vauxhall Vectra. Behind the front row, Matt Neal put in a quick lap near the end of the hour session to capture third place in front of the Ford Focus of Tom Chilton in forth. Jason Plato finished the session in a disappointing fifth position; all be it as the only man to crack the top ten grid positions in a non-turbo entry ,Chevrolet Cruze for Team Silverline. Saturday then, suggested that the Sunday would be dominated by the Turbo powered machines...

  Race One at Thruxton was dominated by the two Honda racing entries of pole man Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, who received little resistance from the following pack headed by Andrew Jordan. After a tactical switch of positions on lap 13 ensured that Neal crossed the start line in first place, thus taking a single point for leading a lap of the race, before handing the position rightfully back to Shedden. Shedden went on to take victory in race one, followed closely by the new championship leader and team mate, Matt Neal. Further down the field, Andrew Jordan skilfully held off a resilient Tom Chilton for third place. Reigning champion Jason Plato had looked set to challenge Chilton for fourth before a suspected tyre failure caused him to crash at the chicane with two laps to go. This handed fifth place to SpecialTuning SEAT's Tom Boardman who completed an impressive performance in race one from ninth on the grid, ahead of Airways Ford's Mat Jackson and Tom Onslow-Coles ever improving AmD Volkswagen machine. The Vauxhall Vectra’s of championship leader going into the weekend James Nash (Triple 8) and rookie driver Jeff Smith, followed closely behind, with Alex MacDowell rounding out the top ten.

 The second Touring Car race of the day saw the grid organised based on the Race One results, with Gordon Shedden leading a Honda Racing lock out of the front row, followed again by Andrew Jordan and Tom Chilton in the Vauxhall Vectra and the ‘global’ Ford Focus respectively.  Shedden lead the field down into turn one, with a lead that would prove short lived thanks to a gutsy move  by teammate Neal on lap 6 on the entry into the fast right hander of Church. Shedden’s 40kg extra ballast thanks to his race one win was hurting him on a track where a cars balance and ability to change direction is paramount, resulting in Andrew Jordan eventually finding his way past the Honda in a move that placed him in Second place, all be it a distance two seconds behind Neal. Further down the pack, Plato had made good use of a blistering start and a number of excellent overtaking moves under breaking (an area well known for being a strong point of the Cruze), to move his way up to Eighth from the very back of the grid, one place behind Teammate Alex MacDowell who had aggressively displaced Rob Collard for seventh laps from the end of the race. Matt Neal went on to comfortably win the race, followed by Andrew Jordan, and Neal’s teammate of Shedden who had masterfully managed to withstand the efforts of both Tom Chilton and Mat Jackson (forth and fifth). James Nash continued his quiet march up the order to come home sixth, followed by the two Team Silverline cars of Plato and MacDowell. Tom Boardman continued to impress by finishing ninth, ahead of Triple 8’s Tony Gilham rounding out the top ten.

 Thurxtons final Touring Car race of the day featured a reversed grid based on the race two finishing order. This implemented Tom Boardman as the pole man, with a resurgent Jason Plato being rewarded for his storming race two with second place on the grid. Plato made use of his grid position, and a woeful launch from the SEAT of Boardman, to take the lead around the outside of the first corner , and lead throughout, despite a safety car period caused by Tom Chilton’s heavy shunt midway through proceedings. The Team Aon driver had been defending his position of forth going into turn one, after a poor exit from the final corner onto the start straight had left him off line; with the Eurotech Vectra of Andrew Jordan on the inside for turn one. A misjudgement in entry speed to the corner forced Chilton off track and into a track side barrier, in what was a sizable shunt. The restart saw a fast starting Mat Jackson briefly challenge Plato for the lead in his turbo powered Ford, before the RML run Chevrolet managed to establish a comfortable lead. The main battle in the race became the fight for third place, with Boardman holding his nerve in the last podium spot, followed by a train headed by Triple 8’s James Nash. Behind Nash the two Honda Racing entries continued there stellar weekend in fifth and sixth, both of which benefiting from Chilton’s retirement and Andrew Jordan’s own exit from the track, just before the safety car period.  Jordan scarcely managed to hold off Alex MacDowell  for seventh come the end of the race, followed by an impressive performance by Tony Gilham for ninth, and a resurgent Tom Onslow-Cole who rounded out the top ten, after starting last on the grid after missing race two thanks to a damaged exhaust manifold. Plato went onto dominate the latter stages of the race to take victory, joined in the podium places by Mat Jackson and Tom Boardman.

  The conclusion of weekends BTCC action leaves Matt Neal in the lead of the Championship, followed by Airwaves Ford driver Mat Jackson and Triple 8’s James Nash in third. Reigning champion Jason Plato continues his largely below expectations start the season, by lying sixth in the standings; a sizable 27 points shy of Neal’s points total.

The next BTCC meeting is at Oulton Park, 4^th/5^th June.