Mat Jackson, Andy Priaulx and Colin Turkington all registered victories at Silverstone in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, leaving the title to be decided at the final races at Brands Hatch next month.
In the first race of the day Jackson saw off Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden - who finished second and third respectively - to secure victory, while a puncture on the penultimate lap resulted in a failure to score for Jason Plato.
Motorbase Ford Focus driver Jackson was largely untroubled as he took the win, stealing the lead the from Shedden on the approach to Copse corner for the first time on lap one and then maintaining a 2.5-second gap to the end of the race. Jordan moved ahead of Shedden on lap two to take second, and he too held onto the place until the end of the race, with Shedden holding station to take the third spot on the podium.
Andy Priaulx had suffered a roll bar failure in qualifying and treated the first race as a qualifying session for race two, registering a fast enough lap time to ensure he started third on the grid on race two. The tactic paid off as he claimed his second victory since his return to BTCC, with Jack Goff in second and Aron Smith in third.
Priaulx took the lead on lap eight, as the 75kg of ballast carried by Mat Jackson’s Ford Focus finally proved too much. Jackson’s race was finally ended by a puncture, with Goff and Smith moving up to second and third respectively. Championship leader Gordon Shedden came in fourth after Andrew Jordan also suffered a puncture.
In the final race Team BMR's Turkington kept his bid to defend his title alive by claiming victory over Rob Collard and Sam Tordoff. Turkington moved into the lead on lap one before the safety car was called into action on lap two following a collision between Hunter Abbott and Dan Welch.
Race one winner Mat Jackson had a storming race, moving from 24th to 12th on the first lap before making it up to seventh after the safety car. He went no further, though, with Matt Neal putting an end to his overtaking for the day.
Gordon Shedden finished fifth, just behind Jason Plato, but results over the weekend meant Shedden extended his advantage to 23 points over in the drivers' standings. With Turkington moving to 32 points behind Shedden, and 68 points on offer at the final three races, the championship will be decided at Brands Hatch on 10 and 11 October.
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