Gordon Shedden has returned to the head of the British Touring Car Championship drivers’ Championship after his sixth victory of the year from team-mate Matt Neal in Round 14 of the season.
Shedden took the lead from team-mate Matt Neal at Tower corner on lap three and never looked back as he drove away to secure his sixth win and the teams’ seventh win on the trot. The podium was completed by the Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 of Rob Austin, who took his first podium finish of the year.
At the start Rob Collard moved to the head of the pack at the wheel of the WSR-run eBay Motors BMW 320si but his lead was short-lived as race one winner Neal retook the lead around the first lap at Barcroft and Shedden followed his team-mate through at the start of the complex.
Collard was soon demoted to fourth as the third Honda Civic of Andrew Jordan made a move at Tower corner on the following lap.
Up at the front, Shedden made his move for the lead on lap 3 and after that wasn’t challenged, despite not pulling away after taking the lead.
Further back, the main action was coming between the trio of rear-wheel drive cars running in fourth, fifth and sixth – Austin found a way ahead of Collard on lap six and set about chasing down third place Jordan, whilst Collard had to defend from his eBay Motors team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole. On lap 13 Austin passed Jordan for third exiting the hairpin, securing his second-ever podium finish in the process.
Collard held on to take fourth, despite pressuring Jordan late in the race. Onslow-Cole looked ready to make a move on his team-mate in the closing laps but ultimately had to settle for sixth.
Having started at the back of the grid after failing to take the start in the opening race, the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 of Jason Plato had worked his way up the order to seventh but couldn’t close up on Onslow-Cole to make any further progress.
Frank Wrathall finished in eighth after his race one technical problems prevented him finishing, with Andy Neate and Nick Foster completing the top ten. WSR driver Foster will start the third race from pole position after he was selected in the reverse-grid draw. It is the third time Foster has been drawn for pole position for the third race of the day, and in 2011 he scored his best-ever BTCC result with a second having started from pole at Croft.
Completing the points scorers were Tony Gilham, Dave Newsham, Jeff Smith, Liam Griffin and Ollie Jackson.
Ahead of the final race, Shedden has a slender two point advantage over Neal while Plato has fallen 40 points behind Shedden, with Collard just 10 points off Plato.
Round 15 gets underway at 17.12 GMT.