Thruxton BTCC: Gordon Shedden wins after Jason Plato's puncture

The reigning champion started seventh and made up places as polesitter Jack Goff's Vauxhall Insignia was bullied down the order and eventually off the track.

Adam Morgan held the lead initially, but the Ciceley Toyota Avensis then went wide at Church and had to pit to have its radiator cleared.

That left Jeff Smith's Eurotech Honda in the lead, from the MGs of Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff.

At the same time, Shedden was pressuring Tom Onslow-Cole's Team Hard VW Passat for fourth and he made it by on lap four.

He quickly closed on the lead trio, but Plato breached Smith's defences at the complex on lap seven and started to pull away.

It took Shedden some time to make it by Tordoff and Smith, finally making it into second with four laps to go.

He immediately sliced over a second off Plato's 3.5s advantage, but the anticipated late-race battle did not materialise as the MG was struck with a left-front puncture with just over two laps to go.

Tordoff also fell back, briefly leaving the Honda Civics in first through fourth places. But when Matt Neal tried to pass Smith for second at the chicane, the Eurotech car spun off.

Neal, winner of the first two races, thus finished second, holding off Andrew Jordan by just 0.049 seconds in a Civic 1-2-3.

Onslow-Cole finished some way back in fourth, while Aron Smith gave Motorbase some encouragement after recent troubles by finishing fifth in his NGTC Ford Focus.

Team-mate Mat Jackson was seventh, behind the recovering Jeff Smith and ahead of the struggling Tordoff.

Dan Welch also starred, charging his Proton through from the back to 11th after brake failure in race two.

Lea Wood once again led the S2000 class throughout in his Vauxhall Vectra to take the Jack Sears Trophy.

Results - 16 laps:

Pos  Driver            Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Gordon Shedden    Honda               21m14.790s
 2.  Matt Neal         Honda                 + 0.643s
 3.  Andrew Jordan     Eurotech Honda        + 0.692s
 4.  Tom Onslow-Cole   Hard VW               + 6.646s
 5.  Aron Smith        Motorbase Ford        + 8.202s
 6.  Jeff Smith        Eurotech Honda        + 9.167s
 7.  Mat Jackson       Motorbase Ford        + 9.506s
 8.  Sam Tordoff       MG                   + 13.600s
 9.  Dave Newsham      Speedworks Toyota    + 13.962s
10.  Colin Turkington  WSR BMW              + 17.289s
11.  Daniel Welch      Welch Proton         + 26.120s
12.  Adam Morgan       Ciceley Toyota       + 31.720s
13.  Nick Foster       WSR BMW              + 31.992s
14.  James Cole        Hard Vauxhall        + 35.878s
15.  Rob Collard       WSR BMW              + 39.372s
16.  Lea Wood          Wood Vauxhall        + 43.868s*
17.  Will Bratt        Austin Audi          + 49.258s
18.  David Nye         Welch Ford           + 49.613s*
19.  James Kaye        AmD VW               + 50.121s*
20.  Joe Girling       Finesse Chevrolet  + 1m02.280s*
21.  Warren Scott      BMR SEAT           + 1m05.150s*
22.  Jason Plato       MG                     + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Ollie Jackson     Speedworks Toyota      12 laps
     Rob Austin        Austin Audi             8 laps
     Liam Griffin      Motorbase Ford          2 laps*
     Jack Goff         Hard Vauxhall            1 lap
     Frank Wrathall    Dynojet Toyota          0 laps

* S2000