Rockingham BTCC: Gordon Shedden's wet win gives him points lead

The works Honda Civic driver jumped from row five to sixth on the opening lap, helped by mistakes from poleman Adam Morgan (Speedworks Toyota Avensis) and Mat Jackson in Motorbase's NGTC Ford Focus.

Up at the front, the fast-starting Aron Smith (Motorbase S2000 Focus) led Matt Neal's Civic (up from eighth on the grid), Rob Collard's WSR BMW, Jason Plato's MG and the Eurotech Honda of Andrew Jordan.

Shedden dived by Jordan into Deene just before Jeff Smith crashed his Eurotech-run Civic heavily on the banking, bringing out the safety car.

Plato had already passed Collard, and Shedden soon made it by the BMW after the restart.

The three title contenders - Neal, Plato and Shedden - then closed on Aron Smith, who was struggling to maintain his pace.

Neal made it by into Tarzan on lap 11 of 19, but Shedden and Plato followed almost immediately.

With Plato still within range, Shedden - who appeared to have extra speed over the injured Neal - got a great run out of the last corner to challenge his team-mate.

The Honda duo ran side-by-side through the banked Turn 1 before Shedden secured the place.

Shedden then edged away to take his eighth win of 2012, while Neal just held off a late charge from Plato.

Smith eventually came home fifth after falling prey to Jordan, who thus made it three NGTC Civics in the top four.

Jackson recovered to sixth, ahead of a late battle between Tom Onslow-Cole's WSR BMW and the AmD VW Golf of Ollie Jackson, which had started on the front row.

Onslow-Cole had come through from row seven, but found the VW a tough competitor

The duo swapped places twice on the final tour before Onslow-Cole crossed the line seventh.

BTCC rookie Howard Fuller finished 16th after going off at Deene in Tony Gilham Racing's S2000 Honda Civic.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Gordon Shedden   Honda               33m28.324s
 2.  Matt Neal        Honda                 + 3.423s
 3.  Jason Plato      MG                    + 3.671s
 4.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda       + 13.439s
 5.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford       + 15.728s
 6.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford       + 19.810s
 7.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW              + 22.229s
 8.  Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen       + 22.685s
 9.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW              + 29.635s
10.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi          + 30.747s
11.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota    + 33.204s
12.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota       + 36.223s
13.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW              + 44.385s
14.  Andy Neate       MG                   + 45.067s
15.  Will Bratt       Austin Audi          + 47.662s
16.  Howard Fuller    Gilham Honda         + 55.443s
17.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota  + 1m04.343s

Retirements:

     Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall            11 laps
     Chris James      ES Vauxhall             4 laps
     Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda          2 laps