Shedden takes his first win of season

The 29-year-old Scotsman had to drive defensively in the early laps to fend off the determined attack of Darren Turner, but pulled away as rain fell in the closing stages of the race and won by over three seconds from the SEAT driver.

Turner's race was made by a sensational move at Deene hairpin on the opening lap that saw him go around the outside of Matt Neal, Adam Jones and the fast-starting Colin Turkington.

He even thought about passing Shedden for the lead at the same corner on lap five after using the extra straightline speed afforded by his Leon's diesel engine to close right onto the tail of the Honda, but eventually settled for second.

Vauxhall driver Neal challenged Turner on numerous occasions at Deene, which was the favoured overtaking spot during the race, but braked too late on lap 13, sliding wide onto the grass and losing positions to Adam Jones and Tom Onslow-Cole.

He was quickly past the sister Vauxhall of Onslow-Cole, and, revelling in the low-grip conditions at the end of the race, nailed Jones' Team Air-Cool SEAT at Deene on the last lap to rescue the final podium position.

Onslow-Cole was now going backwards and got into a bit of trouble with two laps to go as he received an accidental tap - which he was able to catch - from Mat Jackson's BMW after letting teammate Fabrizio Giovanardi by through the Pif-Paf.

Giovanardi finished just ahead of Jackson, enabling him to increase his championship lead to three points over his rival.

Onslow-Cole, who set a new lap record early on, came seventh with Tom Chilton's Team Halfords Honda next up.

Jason Plato - starting his 250th BTCC race - bogged down at the start and was then pushed onto the grass at Yentwood on the opening lap. He finished ninth ahead of Steven Kane's Motorbase BMW.

Turkington mysteriously slipped back to finish 16th by the flag in his Team RAC BMW while the BTC Racing squad had something to smile about as Stuart Oliver came 19th in their lone Lexus, giving them their first race finish of the season.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Gordon Shedden       Honda      23:28.251
 2.  Darren Turner        SEAT       +   3.024
 3.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall   +   3.575
 4.  Adam Jones           SEAT       +   5.004
 5.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall   +   9.078
 6.  Mat Jackson          BMW        +   9.779
 7.  Tom Onslow-Cole      Vauxhall   +  10.445
 8.  Tom Chilton          Honda      +  10.778
 9.  Jason Plato          SEAT       +  12.255
10.  Steven Kane          BMW        +  15.323
11.  Stephen Jelley       BMW        +  21.072
12.  Matt Allison         Chevrolet  +  25.861
13.  Rob Collard          BMW        +  30.678
14.  Jason Hughes         Honda      +  39.407
15.  John George          Honda      +  42.834
16.  Colin Turkington     BMW        +  42.953
17.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall   +  56.563
18.  Martyn Bell          Vauxhall   +1:06.982
19.  Stuart Oliver        Lexus      +1:10.559
20.  Michael Doyle        Honda      +   1 lap
21.  Alan Taylor          Honda      +   1 lap

Retirements:

     Driver               Car        Laps
     Mike Jordan          Honda      8
     Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet  3
     Andrew Jordan        Honda      2