Thruxton 2004 Green Flag 11/04/2004   11/04/2004 Race 2 Report   Well I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so! Alan Gow should be happily running around the paddock area at Thruxton handing out wrap-around sunglasses to all those that he bumps into. Why? Well, not because he wants to protect the BTCC fans from the glare of an overcast Thruxton, or even in an attempt to add further glamour to the event, no, he needs to distribute Rayband’s finest to protect the paying public from his grin! Race 2 has demonstrated to the world that British Touring Cars are back, maybe not quite to the heady highs of the mid-nineties, not yet, but the series has found the yellow brick road and it surely will not be long before once again at the top of the touring car world. This race had it all, the returning hero, the villain, crashes, embarrassing errors and the fairytale ending. Jason Plato in the SEAT Toledo Cupra, the hero to fans in this case, started from the third slot on the grid following his eighth place in the first race, and as such was five places in front of the Red Baron, aka Yvon Muller, the current champion in the all conquering Vauxhall Astra Coupe. Other walk on parts in this production went to Tom Chilton, the factory Honda driver sat on pole, Shaun Watson-Smith in the lead Proton who started alongside the youngster on the front row and Dan Eaves who would make a brief cameo appearance in the early stages of the race. The scene was set. The increasing noise level from the engines set the nerves racing as the lights went to red, each of the drivers staring impatiently ahead, waiting for the chance to release the clutch and storm off aggressively to Allard and then Campbell. All that is, except Chilton in the Honda, who sat on the line waiting for Christmas as the cars streamed passed him, his big moment gone, for now at least. Dan Eaves in the Computeach Honda Civic made a peach of a start and roared up the outside of the lead cars who were still desperately trying to find some grip and momentum. Eaves was followed by the SEAT pair of Huff then Plato and the Proton of Watson-Smith. Amongst all the confusion caused by the stalling Chilton, the Red Baron had moved ominously up through the field and sat behind the Proton. By the end of the first lap the SEAT’s had closed on the leading Honda of Dan Eaves and Muller had in turn attached himself as wing man to the Spanish cars of Plato and Huff. Elsewhere in the field there was bedlam, the reversed grid had the desired effect and cars were pinging and banging there way around Thruxton as if it were some large pinball machine. Turkington went off in one MG then Reid was briefly off in the other, both returning to the fray. Thompson and Neal were trying to knock their way to the front and were succeeding to a point. That point would come in the form of each other as the two had a huge coming together. Matt Neal and his Honda buried themselves into a tyre wall, finishing his race if not his weekend at that point and Thompson faired no better as his Vauxhall was left marooned in the middle of track looking extremely sorry for itself. Out came the safety car as Plato passed his team mate to gain second place and give himself some breathing space over the villain. Jason now sat menacingly behind Eaves waiting for the duel to begin. The safety car went in and Huff went out in the second SEAT, of contention anyway, leaving Muller on the rear bumper of Plato’s yellow/silver dream machine. It was not long before the two swept past Eaves with consummate ease and thus putting themselves onto centre stage until the end of the race. Muller chased Plato endlessly; clearly he was the quicker of the two, and as the race moved on the SEAT wandered uneasily on the wearing Dunlop rubber and the Vauxhall ducked and dived but to no avail. Jason held on to the end and the crowd went wild, as did the SEAT team and their star driver. There were other drivers and cars in the race but that did not seem to matter, this was about the two rivals of old and what would happen. In the end Jason Plato won, as did the BTCC, and everybody apart from Yvon Muller walked away with a smile and none would have had a bigger than that of Alan Gow, the old/new man in charge. As for Muller, he was left looking under the front of his car trying to find a reason or possibly an excuse, as to why he lost to HIM. Roll on race three. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport