Shedden charges to victory in BTCC's second race at Thruxton
Gordon Shedden has scored a superb victory in the second British Touring Car race at Thruxton
Having charged from 18th to sixth in the first race, the works Honda driver was quickly on the move at the start of the second encounter, held in even worse conditions.
After two laps behind the safety car, Mat Jackson's Motorbase Ford Focus built an impressive 2.8s lead at the end of the first racing lap. But Shedden was already up to fourth, having passed Frank Wrathall (Dynojet Toyota Avensis) and Rob Collard (WSR BMW) on the same tour.
The Honda then overtook Jason Plato's MG6 at Campbell and Dave Newsham (ES Racing Vauxhall Vectra) at the chicane on lap five of 16.
Lapping around a second quicker than the rest, Shedden quickly closed the 3.4s gap Jackson had built up. The Honda dived by at Campbell just after half-distance and Shedden pulled clear to record a great recovery after his qualifying woes.
As the S2000 cars, running narrower tyres than the NGTC machines, started to struggle with worn rubber, Jackson and Newsham came under further threat.
Plato passed the Ford with just under four laps to go and Jackson only just held off a charging Wrathall, who had already swept by Newsham, on the line for third.
Although not as quick as his team-mate, Matt Neal also did some overtaking, coming through from row five to fifth, having overcome Newsham at the chicane with two laps to go.
Behind Newsham, Rob Collard's WSR BMW was seventh, ahead of a quietly impressive Aron Smith (Motorbase Ford Focus).
Having started from the back due to his race one crash, Andrew Jordan (Eurotech) was the third Honda Civic on a charge, and he missed out on beating Tony Gilham's S2000 version for ninth by 0.057s.
Results - 16 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Gordon Shedden Dynamics Honda 1m21.298s 2. Jason Plato Triple 8 MG + 3.147s 3. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford + 6.345s 4. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota + 6.585s 5. Matt Neal Dynamics Honda + 9.858s 6. Dave Newsham ES Vauxhall + 15.085s 7. Rob Collard WSR BMW + 23.423s 8. Aron Smith Motorbase Ford + 26.406s 9. Tony Gilham Gilham Honda + 29.130s 10. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda + 29.187s 11. Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda + 35.190s 12. Lea Wood Wood Vauxhall + 35.390s 13. Tom Onslow-Cole WSR BMW + 37.429s 14. Nick Foster WSR BMW + 48.032s 15. Ollie Jackson AmD Volkswagen + 58.937s 16. Andy Neate Triple 8 MG + 1m17.297s 17. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford + 1m17.512s 18. Rob Austin Austin Audi + 1 lap 19. Tony Hughes Speedworks Toyota + 1 lap Retirements: Adam Morgan Speedworks Toyota 12 laps Chris James ES Vauxhall 6 laps
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