Aron Smith becomes 12th winner of 2016 BTCC season at Rockingham
Aron Smith became a record-breaking 12th different winner in a season of the British Touring Car Championship when he took victory in the final race of the day at Rockingham
The Team BKR VW CC man held off race-long pressure to record his win after three safety car periods left Honda's Gordon Shedden and Subaru's Colin Turkington, up from 16th on the grid, in his mirrors.
"The car came alive for the last race," he said. "I had to nail the restarts and I did, which helped.
"I had pressure. Once I saw Colin Turkington in to third, I knew I would be OK because he would fight Gordon Shedden pretty hard.'
Championship challenger Matt Neal brought his Honda home in fourth place on the less favourable harder Dunlop tyres, and Mat Jackson followed him home, also on the harder rubber.
The second safety car had been caused when Ash Sutton's MG, which had been defending hard in seventh pace, was knocked out of contention after contact with Dave Newsham's Chevrolet.
Rob Collard was run wide on the opening lap but recovered for sixth spot ahead of the Mercedes of Adam Morgan and Jake Hill in the Toyota Avensis.
Aiden Moffat (Mercedes) and Jason Plato (Subaru) completed the top 10.
Championship leader Sam Tordoff struggled with 75kg onboard his BMW 125i M Sport and slid down the order to 16th, just outside of the points.
He still maintains a five-point buffer at the head of the table over Neal.
Shedden is now just 20 points from the top of the standings in third spot.
RACE THREE RESULT
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Aron Taylor-Smith | Team BKR | Volkswagen | 19 | 29m49.905s |
2 | Gordon Shedden | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 19 | 0.400s |
3 | Colin Turkington | Team BMR | Subaru | 19 | 0.572s |
4 | Matt Neal | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 19 | 3.491s |
5 | Mat Jackson | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 19 | 4.519s |
6 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 19 | 4.936s |
7 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Racing | Mercedes | 19 | 5.686s |
8 | Jake Hill | Team Hard | Toyota | 19 | 6.227s |
9 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 19 | 10.578s |
10 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | 19 | 10.899s |
11 | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 19 | 11.358s |
12 | Andrew Jordan | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 19 | 11.690s |
13 | Jeff Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 19 | 12.611s |
14 | Hunter Abbott | Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet | 19 | 12.913s |
15 | Josh Cook | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 19 | 13.478s |
16 | Sam Tordoff | WSR | BMW | 19 | 14.466s |
17 | Alex Martin | Team Parker Racing | Ford | 19 | 14.924s |
18 | James Cole | Team BMR | Subaru | 19 | 18.088s |
19 | Ash Sutton | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 19 | 18.805s |
20 | Matt Simpson | Speedworks Motorsport | Honda | 19 | 19.035s |
21 | Martin Depper | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 19 | 19.879s |
22 | Stewart Lines | Maximum Motorsport | Ford | 19 | 20.159s |
23 | Michael Epps | Team Hard | Toyota | 19 | 21.202s |
- | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 15 | Retirement |
- | Warren Scott | Team BMR | Subaru | 13 | Retirement |
- | Rob Austin | Handy Motorsport | Toyota | 12 | Retirement |
- | Mark Howard | Team BKR | Volkswagen | 11 | Retirement |
- | Dave Newsham | Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet | 7 | Retirement |
- | Tony Gilham | Team Hard | Toyota | 4 | Retirement |
- | Daniel Welch | Welch Motorsport | Proton | 1 | Retirement |
- | Jack Goff | WSR | BMW | 0 | Retirement |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Sam Tordoff | 258 |
2 | Matt Neal | 253 |
3 | Gordon Shedden | 238 |
4 | Mat Jackson | 230 |
5 | Rob Collard | 227 |
6 | Colin Turkington | 210 |
7 | Andrew Jordan | 201 |
8 | Jason Plato | 199 |
9 | Adam Morgan | 179 |
10 | Jack Goff | 174 |
11 | Tom Ingram | 163 |
12 | Ash Sutton | 147 |
13 | Josh Cook | 129 |
14 | Aron Taylor-Smith | 120 |
15 | Rob Austin | 98 |
16 | Aiden Moffat | 82 |
17 | Jake Hill | 57 |
18 | Jeff Smith | 51 |
19 | Daniel Lloyd | 36 |
20 | Dave Newsham | 28 |
21 | Martin Depper | 27 |
22 | Hunter Abbott | 26 |
23 | Daniel Welch | 21 |
24 | Michael Epps | 19 |
25 | James Cole | 14 |
26 | Ollie Jackson | 11 |
27 | Warren Scott | 7 |
28 | Alex Martin | 3 |
29 | Matt Simpson | 1 |
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