Defending champion Jason Plato led every lap of the first two races in his Silverline Chevrolet to start the 2011 BTCC season with a bang.

The first round of the new season took place on the Indy configuration at Brands Hatch and Oxford driver Plato had initially played down his chances of winning race one from the second row of the grid on a track notorious for the lack of overtaking opportunities.

His chances were boosted when Honda’s Matt Neal was sent into a spin and out of the race within the first two corners of the race.

Plato’s win, his 61st in BTCC, means he has now won more races than any other driver in the history of the series.

“It’s a really good way to start the season,” Plato said.

“I wasn’t expecting a win as we certainly don’t have Matt’s pace at the minute.

“Third was on my radar, but I got a decent start and managed to block Andrew Jordan out so that was second.”

Despite leapfrogging Jordan into second place and then inheriting the lead after Neal’s retirement, Plato was aware he still had a lot of work to do.

“I wasn’t home and dry but knew then I had a chance to win,” he said. “Matt having a problem made it a lot easier.”

The Oxford-born racer acknowledged his new win record, but insisted there are plenty more still to come.

“The wins record is a bonus but I’m not bored yet of the feeling I get from winning, so I want to win a lot more before I’m done.”

James Nash finished a career-best second and Team Aon’s Tom Chilton rounded off the podium.

Plato was untouchable in the second race, this time leading home Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden, whose second place was all the more remarkable after his car had suffered major damage in practice, forcing him out of qualifying.

Shedden was third for the majority of the race, but managed to pass Mat Jackson in the closing stages to steal second and relegate Jackson’s Airwaves Racing Ford Focus to third.

Ahead of the third and final race of the day, which sees the grid reversed, Plato claimed he would be happy just to score some points.

“Given the buffer we’ve already built up in races one and two then a nice boring points finish will be quite satisfactory in this one,” he claimed before the start.

And that is exactly how the race played out, although it was not necessarily ‘boring’ for Plato as he was in a constant battle throughout and managed to finish fifth.

The final race was won by the initial pole-sitter Neal, who recovered from a disappointing opening round to take the chequered flag, capitalising on the reverse grid to turn his weekend around.