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Brands Hatch BTCC: Gordon Shedden claims third title in showdown

Honda's Gordon Shedden has successfully defended his British Touring Car Championship crown after wresting the points lead in the final race of the season, won by Mat Jackson

The Scot beat Sam Tordoff in the Brands Hatch finale to become the first man to claim back-to-back championship wins since Fabrizio Giovanardi for Vauxhall in 2007/08.

With the top seven from race two reversed for the season finale, Tordoff lined up third on the grid, with Shedden right behind him in fifth and Turkington seventh.

Tordoff ran third in the early stages behind Jackson and Aiden Moffat, but Shedden hunted him down after deposing Josh Cook's MG.

The Honda man took third position with ease, cutting back underneath the BMW at Clearways, and pulled clear.

Shedden pressured Moffat for second but had a late scare when he came under intense pressure from Adam Morgan's Mercedes-Benz A-Class, who launched a final-lap assault after a late safety car period to recover Dan Welch's beached Proton.

Shedden soaked up the pressure to come home third and win the title by two points as Tordoff finished fifth.

"Boy am I happy," enthused Shedden. "I thought it was all going pear-shaped ten yards into the race because Jason Plato cut across in front and squeezed me up against the pit wall.

"The Honda Civic was just incredible. I'm so chuffed. Matt Neal did the double in 2005/06 and Fabrizio Giovanardi did it in 07/08, but there aren't too many people who have taken back-to-backs in the modern era.

"I've driven my heart out all season and did just enough."

At the front, Jackson led the race from pole position to chequered flag to equal Turkington's haul of five race wins for the 2016 season.

He started on pole position in his Motorbase Ford Focus on the softer tyres carrying 27kg of success ballast, and was untroubled throughout the 18 laps despite two mid-race safety cars.

Behind Tordoff, Tom Ingram was sixth in his Speedworks Toyota Avensis from Cook, Jake Hill (Team Hard Toyota Avensis), Rob Collard (BMW) and Plato.

The third of the title protagonists going into the final race, double victor earlier in the day Colin Turkington, never really featured in the race as he struggled with a Levorg estate heavily laden with success ballast and ended up 12th.

RACE THREE RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Laps Gap
1 Mat Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 30m42.447s 18 -
2 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 30m43.463s 18 1.016s
3 Gordon Shedden Dynamics/Honda Honda 30m43.901s 18 1.454s
4 Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes 30m44.107s 18 1.660s
5 Sam Tordoff WSR BMW 30m45.047s 18 2.600s
6 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 30m45.181s 18 2.734s
7 Josh Cook Triple Eight/MG MG 30m45.493s 18 3.046s
8 Jake Hill Team Hard Toyota 30m46.540s 18 4.093s
9 Rob Collard WSR BMW 30m46.635s 18 4.188s
10 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 30m48.384s 18 5.937s
11 Andrew Jordan Motorbase Performance Ford 30m48.599s 18 6.152s
12 Colin Turkington Team BMR Subaru 30m48.845s 18 6.398s
13 Jack Goff WSR BMW 30m49.270s 18 6.823s
14 Rob Austin Handy Motorsport Toyota 30m49.301s 18 6.854s
15 Martin Depper Eurotech Racing Honda 30m51.259s 18 8.812s
16 James Cole Team BMR Subaru 30m51.668s 18 9.221s
17 Jeff Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 30m51.907s 18 9.460s
18 Matt Simpson Speedworks Motorsport Honda 30m52.280s 18 9.833s
19 Alex Martin Team Parker Racing Ford 30m52.916s 18 10.469s
20 Aron Taylor-Smith Team BKR Volkswagen 30m53.497s 18 11.050s
21 Kelvin Fletcher Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet 30m54.072s 18 11.625s
22 Stewart Lines Maximum Motorsport Ford 30m54.622s 18 12.175s
23 Mark Howard Team BKR Volkswagen 30m55.467s 18 13.020s
24 Ash Sutton Triple Eight/MG MG 31m13.640s 18 31.193s
25 Michael Epps Team Hard Toyota 30m56.050s 17 1 Lap
- Daniel Welch Welch Motorsport Proton 21m57.233s 13 Retirement
- Tony Gilham Team Hard Toyota 15m37.921s 9 Retirement
- Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 13m50.341s 8 Retirement
- Warren Scott Team BMR Subaru 3m22.300s 2 Retirement
- Hunter Abbott Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet - 0 Retirement
- Matt Neal Dynamics/Honda Honda - 0 Not started

FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Gordon Shedden 308
2 Sam Tordoff 306
3 Mat Jackson 292
4 Colin Turkington 289
5 Rob Collard 278
6 Matt Neal 275
7 Jason Plato 256
8 Andrew Jordan 255
9 Adam Morgan 241
10 Tom Ingram 219
11 Jack Goff 193
12 Josh Cook 175
13 Ash Sutton 162
14 Aiden Moffat 138
15 Aron Taylor-Smith 132
16 Rob Austin 129
17 Jake Hill 83
18 Jeff Smith 55
19 Hunter Abbott 38
20 Daniel Lloyd 36
21 Martin Depper 28
22 Dave Newsham 28
23 Daniel Welch 23
24 Michael Epps 23
25 James Cole 15
26 Ollie Jackson 14
27 Warren Scott 7
28 Alex Martin 3
29 Matt Simpson 1
30 Chris Smiley 0
31 Kelvin Fletcher 0
32 Michael Caine 0
33 Stewart Lines 0
34 Mark Howard -3

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