Reigning British Touring Car champion Jason Plato suffered mixed fortunes in the Goodyear 100-mile race at the banked oval Rockingham track in Northamptonshire.
The Oxford driver ran strongly at the front of the field in the opening round of the 2002 ASCAR racing series, on his way to sixth place in the first race, but pitted early in the second to investigate a suspected oil leak, eventually finishing eighth.
Plato said: "This is hard work. It took me a bit of time to get into this, but it's great, really hard racing and you need to trust the people around you. We didn't have things go our way this weekend, but we'll change that next time out."
Somerset driver Colin White claimed victory after a dramatic finish, just a quarter of a second ahead of reigning champion John Mickel.
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