Honda’s Gordon Shedden took victory by 0.426 seconds from Andrew Jordan in an orderly first race of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park on Sunday.
Click here for the full Round 4 Results.
Shedden led the race from pole position, whilst behind him Jordan slotted into second place before Redgate corner as front-row man Frank Wrathall got off to a slow start. Despite closing the gap to within half a second in the latter part of the race, Jordan was unable to deny Shedden his 30th career victory in the BTCC.
Honda’s Matt Neal took the final podium position despite late-race pressure from MG’s Jason Plato. Neal managed to work his way past Wrathall for third before the end of the opening lap, whilst Plato was in fourth by the half-way stage of the race.
Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan continued his strong start to the season by taking fifth – his fourth consecutive top ten finish. On the way he secured a bonus point for the fastest lap of the race, his first in the BTCC. Sam Tordoff finished in sixth, having recovered from an off-track excursion at the Old Hairpin when battling with Wrathall in the second half of the race.
Dynojet’s Wrathall could only finish in seventh after losing out to his rivals throughout the race. Colin Turkington took his third eighth place finish of the season for eBay Motors, with the former champion admitting to TouringCars.Net that he seems to ‘only have the pace for eighth’ at the moment.
Dave Newsham and Jeff Smith completed the top ten. Drivers who opted to use the softer tyre in race one did not fare so well, with Árón Smith in 11th the best-placed driver. His Airwaves Racing team-mate Mat Jackson, also on the soft tyres, was 12th, ahead of fellow soft-tyre runners Tom Onslow-Cole (13th), Rob Austin (14th) and Rob Collard (15th). The latter trio enjoyed a fierce battle in the latter stages of the race.
Round 5 takes place at 14:27 GMT.