Plato Racing fortunes continue to turn in the British Touring Car Championship, with Adam Morgan scoring a strong Race to Pole victory at Knockhill.
The result marks Morgan’s first pole position in eight years, with the last at Rockingham in 2018, and makes Plato Racing the first team to score two Race to Pole victories in 2026.
Morgan topped the charts in Group 1 of timed qualifying, with hometown hero Gordon Shedden falling short by just three hundredths in Group 2.
And as the lights went out and the pack thundered through Duffus Dip, it was the Plato Mercedes that sprinted away after an excellent start.
Dan Rowbottom also got by Shedden momentarily, but contact between the pair saw ‘Rowbo’ run wide and ‘Flash’ back into P2 by McIntyre’s.
Contact between Josh Cook and Árón Taylor-Smith saw the Speedworks Corolla in the barriers at Butcher’s, with the stewards calling for a safety car.
Racing resumed at the start of lap 7, with the race extended to 20 laps, as spots of rain started to appear throughout the circuit.
The rain started to edge towards becoming precarious on lap 12, as Shedden started to chip tenths out of Morgan each lap. Behind them, Rowbottom, Chris Smiley, Charles Rainford, and Daryl De Leon were all holding their starting positions.
Tom Ingram, needing a charge for his title hopes, completed a great dive on James Dorlin at Clark’s on lap 13, before opening the door for a scrap between the Restart man, Dan Cammish, and Ash Sutton for P10. By the end of it, a siege on Dorlin’s position saw him drop all the way to P15.
Despite the sporadic action, the Race to Pole had a settled feel at the front, and at the flag it was Morgan who took the flag. Shedden just about defied Rowbottom for P2, while Smiley and Rainford filled out the top five.
De Leon, Mikey Doble, Ricky Collard, Ingram, and Cammish rounded out the best 10, as Sutton, Tom Chilton, Dexter Patterson, and Taylor-Smith completed the points.
View the full BTCC Knockhill Race to Pole results below!
| Position | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Adam Morgan | Cataclean Plato Racing | |
| 2. | Gordon Shedden | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | +2.968 |
| 3. | Daniel Rowbottom | Cataclean Plato Racing | +3.448 |
| 4. | Chris Smiley | Restart Racing | +4.028 |
| 5. | Charles Rainford | WSR | +5.437 |
| 6. | Daryl De Leon | WSR | +7.000 |
| 7. | Mikey Doble | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | +11.943 |
| 8. | Ricky Collard | Team Vertu | +11.949 |
| 9. | Tom Ingram | Team Vertu | +12.122 |
| 10. | Dan Cammish | NAPA Racing UK | +13.917 |
| 11. | Ashley Sutton | NAPA Racing UK | +14.391 |
| 12. | Tom Chilton | Team Vertu | +16.887 |
| 13. | Dexter Patterson | Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing | +17.543 |
| 14. | Árón Taylor-Smith | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | +19.858 |
| 15. | James Dorlin | Restart Racing | +20.162 |
| 16. | Lewis Gilbert | WSR | +20.347 |
| 17. | Lewis Selby | NAPA Racing UK | +23.680 |
| 18. | Sam Osborne | NAPA Racing UK | +24.937 |
| 19. | Ryan Bensley | Speedworks Corolla Racing | +24.946 |
| 20. | Nicolas Hamilton | Team Vertu | +27.005 |
| 21. | Nick Halstead | Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing | +36.986 |
| NC | Aiden Moffat | LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | 3 Laps |
| DNF | Josh Cook | Speedworks Corolla Racing |
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