Árón Smith wins thrilling final race at Rockingham

Árón Smith scored BKR’s first win in the British Touring Car Championship in the final race at Rockingham, in a thrilling race that came down to a three-lap sprint at the end.

Smith had benefited from the reverse-grid pole to start the race at the very front, and the Irishman was very much in control in the first half of the race, as Matt Neal was unable to get past in the first few corners.

Half-way through the race Neal, who had dropped to over three seconds behind Smith, realised that he didn’t have the pace to challenge for the win and he allowed Honda team-mate Gordon Shedden into second. The Scot had earlier made his way up to sixth by the end of the opening lap and he made up a position each lap until the halfway stage.

The safety car came out for a second time after lap eight when MG’s Ashley Sutton punted Power Maxed Racing’s Dave Newsham into the Tarzan hairpin gravel trap, wiping out the comfortable lead which Smith had built up.

Meanwhile, Subaru Team BMR’s Colin Turkington had been steadily charging through the field from 15^th on the grid, and was in seventh when the second safety car period ended. The Northern Irishman then made his way up to third before the final few laps, when a third safety car was called due to Warren Scott’s Subaru stopping on the track at the exit of Turn 1.

It set up a spectacular final three laps, with Smith defending from Shedden, who in turn had to defend from a charging Turkington. In the end Smith prevailed, to score his first win since Snetterton in 2014, ahead of Shedden and Turkington.

Neal took fourth, ahead of Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson in fifth, who had never been out of the top five throughout the race.

WSR’s Rob Collard took sixth and with it ensured he remained in championship contention, as his team-mate Sam Tordoff finished outside the points in 16^th in a race where he was forced to run the unfavourable harder tyre.

WIX Racing’s Adam Morgan was seventh, ahead of Team HARD’s Jake Hill in eighth, who scored a third top ten finish of the season in his Toyota Avensis.

Aiden Moffat made it two Mercedes in the top ten with ninth, whilst Subaru’s Jason Plato completed the top ten after a determined drive from 27^th on the grid.

Jack Goff and Dan Welch were early retirements on the opening lap, the former having been clouted by BKR’s Mark Howard at Yentwood. The incident required the first of the safety car periods in order to recover Goff’s BMW.

Howard, who was also hit with a drive-through penalty for a jump start, later retired when he went off into the gravel at the Tarzan Hairpin.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram also retired from the race after 15 laps whilst running in ninth when he picked up suspension damage on his Toyota.

The result means Tordoff (258 points) only leads Neal (253) by five points in the drivers’ championship standings, with Shedden (237) 21 points adrift.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME/GAP	BEST	GD
1	40		Árón SMITH		BKR	Volkswagen CC	19	29:49.905	1:23.729	1
2	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	19	0.400	1:23.734	10
3	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Silverline Subaru BMR Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	19	0.572	1:24.357	15
4	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	19	3.491	1:24.264	2
5	7		Mat JACKSON		Motorbase Performance	Ford Focus	19	4.519	1:24.548	4
6	100	C	Rob COLLARD		Team JCT600 with GardX	BMW 125i M Sport	19	4.936	1:24.423	5
7	33		Adam MORGAN		WIX Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	19	5.686	1:25.142	8
8	24		Jake HILL		RCIB Insurance Racing	Toyota Avensis	19	6.227	1:25.205	16
9	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	19	10.578	1:25.290	9
10	99	M	Jason PLATO		Silverline Subaru BMR Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	19	10.899	1:24.721	27
11	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmD Tuning	Audi S3	19	11.358	1:24.973	13
12	77		Andrew JORDAN		Motorbase Performance	Ford Focus	19	11.69	1:26.117	6
13	55		Jeff SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	19	12.611	1:24.915	31
14	53		Hunter ABBOTT		Power Maxed Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	19	12.913	1:25.274	21
15	66	M	Josh COOK		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	19	13.478	1:25.186	24
16	600	C	Sam TORDOFF		Team JCT600 with GardX	BMW 125i M Sport	19	14.466	1:25.982	7
17	14		Alex MARTIN		Dextra Racing with Team Parker	Ford Focus	19	14.924	1:25.046	18
18	20	M	James COLE		Silverline Subaru BMR Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	19	18.088	1:24.830	12
19	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	19	18.805	1:25.146	3
20	303		Matt SIMPSON		Speedworks Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R	19	19.035	1:24.377	30
21	30		Martin DEPPER		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	19	19.879	1:25.608	26
22	95		Stewart LINES		Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	19	20.159	1:26.149	17
23	12		Mike EPPS		RCIB Insurance Racing	Toyota Avensis	19	21.202	1:25.140	20
R	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	15	4 Laps	1:23.871	28
R	39	M	Warren SCOTT		Silverline Subaru BMR Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	13	6 Laps	1:25.291	22
R	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	12	7 Laps	1:24.594	14
R	38		Mark HOWARD		BKR	Volkswagen CC	11	8 Laps	1:26.266	19
R	71		David NEWSHAM		Power Maxed Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	7	12 Laps	1:25.118	11
R	34		Tony GILHAM		TLC Racing	Toyota Avensis	4	15 Laps	1:38.505	25
R	17		Dan WELCH		Goodestone Racing	Proton Persona	1	18 Laps	N/A	29
R	31	C	Jack GOFF		Team IHG Rewards Club	BMW 125i M Sport	0	DNF	N/A	23

Complete race results