Adam Shepherd wins twice in quiet TCR UK races at Snetterton

Adam Shepherd moved to the top of the TCR UK championship standings at Snetterton with a double victory, as Bradley Hutchison also scored his maiden victory in the series.

Race one

The opening race was a relatively dull affair, as the order was set after the first sequence of corners. Pole-sitter Shepherd had an easy time of it, as Joe Marshall, who should have lined up alongside on the front row of the grid, pulled off into the pits at the end of the formation lap with a driveshaft issue.

That gave Shepherd a clear run to the first corner, as behind him JH Racing’s Callum Newsham made a slow start in his Hyundai, allowing the CUPRAs of Carl Boardley and Hutchison to get past away from the line.

As far as the front runners were concerned, that was that, as Shepherd eked out a lead of almost five seconds come the chequered flag, scoring his second win of the season.

Boardley lacked the pace to challenge Shepherd and took second, with Hutchison completing the podium after falling back from Boardley as the race progressed and having to defend from Newsham’s Hyundai.

Luke Sargeant and Darron Lewis were a more distant fifth and sixth in their CUPRA and Hyundai cars respectively.

Will Beech took seventh in his Volkswagen, having made contact with the CUPRA of Rick Kerry on lap five.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	21:42.049	1:57.360	1
2	1			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	4.947	1:57.491	4
3	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	10.020	1:57.914	5
4	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	10.659	1:57.737	3
5	115			Luke SARGEANT	Area Motorsport with R.S Vehicle Sales	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	24.206	1:59.227	6
6	285			Darron LEWIS	DLR with JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	24.429	1:59.216	7
7	27			Will BEECH	Capture Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	52.827	2:00.741	9
8	22			Rick KERRY	EDF Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	11	55.821	2:01.181	8
9	100			Steve LAIDLAW	Capture Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	59.880	2:01.419	10
10	77			Mark SMITH	Richmond Fire Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	11	1:09.151	2:01.907	11
11	19			Jeffrey ALDEN	Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing	Opel Astra TCR	11	1:24.551	2:02.395	12
R	99			Joe MARSHALL	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	0	DNF	N/A	2

Race two

The second race of the weekend saw backmarker Mark Smith and series newcomer Steve Laidlaw assume the front row for the reverse-grid race.

At the start though it was Will Beech, from the second row of the grid, who shot into the lead, as Smith and Sargeant then made contact on the run to the Turn 2 Montreal hairpin, pitching both off onto the grass and towards the crops.

Beech’s lead didn’t last long, as the Capture Motorsport driver made a mistake at Oggies and went off, gifting the lead to Hutchison, who had made the best start of all from eighth on the grid.

Behind him, Boardley and Shepherd were quickly up into second and third before the end of the lap, despite the latter being on the receiving end of contact from Newsham just four corners into the race.

The order at the front quickly stabilised, with Hutchison holding a comfortable lead over Boardley, who had his hands full defending from Shepherd.

On lap five, Shepherd made a move on Boardley into Hamilton for second, but at the next corner Boardley retook the position with contact at Oggies.

Although the order stayed that way until the chequered flag, the stewards later reversed the positions, giving Shepherd second and leaving Boardley in third.

Victory for Hutchison was his first in TCR UK, in what is now his third season in the championship, and he did so by a margin of 4.4 seconds.

Marshall came through from the back of the grid to take fourth, ahead of the leading Hyundai of Newsham in fifth, directly ahead of team-mate Lewis in sixth, who had taken the place from Laidlaw with a decisive pass into the first corner on lap five.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	21:49.557	1:57.808	8
2	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	4.440	1:57.930	10
3	1			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	3.829	1:57.921	9
4	99			Joe MARSHALL	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	4.747	1:57.411	12
5	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	10.595	1:58.198	7
6	285			Darron LEWIS	DLR with JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	24.910	1:59.453	5
7	115			Luke SARGEANT	Area Motorsport with R.S Vehicle Sales	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	33.103	1:58.836	6
8	100			Steve LAIDLAW	Capture Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	33.816	2:00.250	2
9	22			Rick KERRY	EDF Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	11	46.608	2:01.828	4
10	19			Jeffrey ALDEN	Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing	Opel Astra TCR	11	1:23.168	2:04.976	11
11	27			Will BEECH	Capture Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	10	+ 1 LAP	2:01.619	3
12	77			Mark SMITH	Richmond Fire Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	10	+ 1 LAP	2:03.727	1

Race three

The final race of the day saw Shepherd on pole again, and this time Marshall finally got to assume his front-row slot alongside the race one winner.

Shepherd made a strong get away to lead early on, and Marshall initially held station in second. Although Shepherd then pulled away in the early laps, Marshall came back in the second half of the race.

By lap six, Marshall was all over the back of the leading CUPRA, and made a few moves to try and get alongside Shepherd to challenge for the lead.

But Shepherd held firm, and Marshall soon faded away again in the closing laps, leaving Shepherd to claim his second win of the weekend by just over a second and a half from the Audi driver.

The podium was completed by Hutchison, who got past Boardley for the place on the sixth lap, leaving Boardley to settle for fourth and his only result of the weekend off the podium.

Newsham was fifth, ahead of Sargeant in sixth, the latter having neither gained or lost ground during the race.

Lewis was seventh, having fought past Laidlaw for the place on the fourth lap, following several laps of trying, including some contact on the third tour.

Laidlaw would have been eighth, but he was later excluded from the result due to a turbo overboost in post-race scrutineering.

A double win for Shepherd sees him leave Snetterton as the points leader on 223 points, ahead of Hutchison (188) and Boardley (184).

Race three result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	21:30.981	1:56.290	1
2	99			Joe MARSHALL	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	1.641	1:56.027	2
3	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	11.895	1:57.233	5
4	1			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	14.158	1:57.373	3
5	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	15.151	1:57.521	4
6	115			Luke SARGEANT	Area Motorsport with R.S Vehicle Sales	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	26.540	1:57.940	6
7	285			Darron LEWIS	DLR with JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	29.570	1:58.030	7
8	100			Steve LAIDLAW	Capture Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	49.751	2:00.282	10
9	27			Will BEECH	Capture Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	51.265	1:59.989	8
10	22			Rick KERRY	EDF Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	11	53.133	2:00.080	9
11	19			Jeffrey ALDEN	Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing	Opel Astra TCR	11	1:17.749	2:01.995	12
12	77			Mark SMITH	Richmond Fire Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	11	1:17.989	2:02.006	11