Onslow-Cole takes victory in first Oulton Park race

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Sun 6th June 2010 Tom Onslow-Cole won for the second time this year, but the Team Aon driver was forced to work hard at the front in round 10 of the 2010 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park.

Onslow-Cole started from pole position and held on to the lead away from the line, trailed by Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato. However, Plato's Chevrolet soon started to struggle with its 36kg of ballast and WSR's Rob Collard took third position as the pack started the second lap of the race.

Starting from the back of the grid, Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan was up to 14th by the end of the first lap and 12th by the end of lap two. Unfortunately his progress was to stop there, though, as a loss of oil pressure forced him to pull off the track, before heading back to the pits for an engine change.

Other early casualties, apart from Martin Johnson and Paul O'Neill, who both failed to start the race, were Tom Boardman (driveshaft) and Matt Hamilton. Hamilton, in the TH Motorsport Honda, clashed with Shaun Hollamby's VW Golf and ended up in the gravel at Knickerbrook. That brought the safety car out at the end of lap three for three laps.

At the restart, Onslow-Cole came under even more pressure from Shedden and Collard. Meanwhile, behind the top three, Plato held on from MacDowall – the youngster having given his more experienced teammate a gentle tap early in the race. The next trio of Tom Chilton, James Nash and Mat Jackson were running together, with the Airwaves BMW looking very quick and moving up to sixth with a move around the outside at the Island hairpin on lap seven. He then claimed fifth with an impressive move on MacDowall at Old Hall.

Into the second half of the race and Collard continued to pile on the pressure at the front. It was tough for Shedden, who was trying his best to challenge Onslow-Cole for the lead while also defending from the BMW. At one point, Collard tried to pass both around the outside at Island, but was stuck on the outside line into Hislop's.

It looked like Collard had the pace to break away if he could just find a way past, but he was eventually forced to settle for third. Onslow-Cole held on at the front and crossed the line just ahead of Shedden and Collard for his second win of the year – his first on the track, though, as his first win came after teammate Chilton's exclusion at Brands Hatch.

Jason Plato was running fourth until the penultimate lap of the race when Mat Jackson made an ambitious move at Cascades, elbowing his way past the Chevrolet, which ended up on the grass and dropping down the order. Jackson ended the race in fourth, ahead of Chilton, Steven Kane and Alex MacDowall. Matt Neal struggled with the ballast on his Civic, finishing eighth ahead of Nash and Plato.

Race winner Tom Onslow-Cole said: "Gordon [Shedden] was giving me a hard time out there. I'm pleased to have held on, but I think it's a good job Rob [Collard] was there. Gordon was having to defend at the same time, which definitely helped me. It's a good start to the day and hopefully we can get another good start in race two and away we go!"