Gordon Shedden triumphs in race two at Rockingham

Shedden's Honda ran third early on, once the fast-starting WSR BMW of Nick Foster had fallen back from the place after being blocked by a wall of Chevrolets at the first corner.

Whereas the Cruzes of Jason Plato and Paul O'Neill had driven away in race one, this time they struggled with the extra success ballast of 45kg and 36kg respectively. They led, but were soon under pressure.

Shedden overcame O'Neill on the run to Deene on lap two and quickly closed on championship rival Plato. He pulled the same move on the works Chevrolet two laps later to take the lead.

Frank Wrathall, who had made a poor start in his NGTC Toyota Avensis from row two, soon became Shedden's main rival. He passed O'Neill and Plato in separate moves on the run from Turn 1 and closed onto the tail of the lead Honda Civic.

Although he remained close for the rest of the race, and had several looks at the lead, Wrathall could not find a way by and had to settle for a BTCC career best of second, just 0.38 seconds behind Shedden.

The second Honda of Matt Neal ran a quiet fifth in the early stages, but got stronger and stronger. He powered past O'Neill just before half-distance and quickly caught Plato.

Neal got alongside Plato on the run to Deene with three laps to go and the Chevrolet driver let him the Honda go.

Behind the top four, Foster continued his impressive weekend by going around the outside of O'Neill on the penultimate lap to secure a well-earned fifth. James Nash also made it by in his Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra to complete the top six.

O'Neill just held off the Eurotech Vauxhall Vectra of Jeff Smith, having one of his best races of the season in eighth, while Rob Austin brought his NGTC Audi through to ninth after starting from the pitlane.

Rob Collard will start this afternoon's reversed-grid race from pole after taking 10th in his WSR BMW.

Results - 16 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car                Time/Gap
 1.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                 23m06.832s
 2.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota          + 0.380s
 3.  Matt Neal        Honda                   + 4.576s
 4.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet               + 5.952s
 5.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW                + 12.895s
 6.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall      + 15.852s
 7.  Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet   + 16.673s
 8.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall      + 16.874s
 9.  Rob Austin       Rob Austin Audi        + 23.549s
10.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW                + 25.848s
11.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford             + 27.566s
12.  Tom Onslow-Cole  Arena Ford             + 27.837s
13.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall      + 28.349s
14.  Tony Gilham      Geoff Steel BMW        + 28.784s
15.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet              + 30.166s
16.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford         + 42.161s
17.  Chris James      ES Chevrolet           + 43.167s
18.  Martin Byford    AmD Volkswagen         + 44.328s
19.  John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet     + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford           14 laps
     Andy Neate       Arena Ford               13 laps
     Daniel Welch     Welch Proton              8 laps
     Michael Caine    Motorbase Ford            8 laps
     Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT       5 laps
     Dave Newsham     Special Tuning SEAT       0 laps