Gordon Shedden was victorious in this afternoon’s first race at Oulton Park – in a race that was full of incident from start to finish. Light rain throughout the morning meant that the track surface was slippery from the start, leading to some drivers starting on wet tyres, some on slicks and some drivers on a combination of both tyres.
As the race progressed the race changed as drivers further back found themselves able to go faster and faster, whilst the early pace-setters suddenly found themselves struggling.
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Matt Neal was the early leader of the race on full wet tyres, getting off to a better start to pass Shedden into the first corner. However the former champions tyres soon began to fade as the track got drier and he was passed by Shedden on lap 4. Neal would continue to slip back and as the race progressed he found himself increasingly defenseless as faster cars cuaght up.
Shedden, meanwhile, was able to establish a lead over the Chevrolet of Jason Plato and by the end of the race he was a comfortable 3.6 seconds in front – the gap having been as much as 6 seconds earlier on. Alex MacDowall, who got off to an excellent start, completed the podium after a relatively quiet race to record his best result of the season so far.
James Nash finished in fourth, although at the half way point of the race he was down in tenth. His car and tyre combination really came into its own in the second half of the race and he scythed his way up to fourth, passing slower cars on wet tyres in the process.
Rob Collard scored his best result of the season to finish in fifth, just ehad of his team-mate Nick Foster who took a career-best sixth placed finish to mark an excellent race for the WSR squad.
On his return to the British Touring Car series Lea Wood immediately ensured his season would be better than last year after just one race. A career-best seventh placed finish was a suitable reward for the only driver in the field still running a car to the BTC-Touring regulations.
The struggling Matt Neal finished in eighth – although he was lucky not to drop even further back. For the SEAT Leon driven by Tom Boardman was the fastest car on the track by the last lap – upto five seconds per lap quicker than those in front. Unfortunately for Boardman contact behind him between Jeff Smith and Andy Neate pitched Smith out of control and onto the grass at the Hairpin and Boardman was the innocent victim, immediately being wiped out of the race.
That incident left Andy Neate to claim his first points of the season in ninth, although like Neal he had been sliding down the order as the race progressed. Andrew Jordan, who had his own off earlier in the race, recovered to take the final point for tenth.
At his local circuit Tech-Speed Chevrolet driver Paul O’Neill may have been hoping for more than 13th place – an early drive-through penalty cost him significant time.
Tom Chilton was unable to take the start of the race due to brake problems on his Ford Focus ST. After repairwork in the pitlane his team were able to send him out into the race but the delay cost him substantial time and he could only finish in 17th and last.