Gordon Shedden wins race three and takes points lead

Gordon Shedden took his second win of the day at Rockingham, jumping up to the championship lead after a faultless drive. The Honda driver led team-mate Matt Neal and title rival Jason Plato, thus repeating the Race 2 podium.

At the start, pole-man Adam Morgan in the Speedworks Toyota went off in the early stages of the first lap, losing the lead almost immediately in favour of the Ford of Aron Smith, whilst West Surrey Racing’s Tom Onslow-Cole had a big spin in his BMW 320si and rejoined, narrowly avoiding being collected by the field.

A big crash by Jeff Smith in the Eurotech Racing Honda on the oval brought the safety car out with Aron Smith leading ahead of Neal, Plato, Rob Collard and Gordon Shedden.

After the restart, Honda’s Shedden passed the WSR BMW of Rob Collard and started chasing down MG driver Jason Plato, the first four drivers now being really packed up and fighting in a hard but fair way, putting on a great show. On lap 10 Shedden passed Plato, while Neal was stuck behind Smith who was defending really well.

However the Motorbase Performance driver had to surrender to the faster Honda Civic, with Neal passing on lap 11 and Shedden doing so just moments later. On the following lap Plato did exactly the same move.

On lap 14 Neal surrendered to Shedden’s quicker car, the Race 2 winner opening up a gap immediately. Two laps later Andy Jordan had a big moment trying to overtake Smith, but he made up for the incovenience with a great pass on the Ford.

In the last three laps Plato launched several attacks at Neal, but the injured Honda driver defended well and was able to bring home another second place.

Shedden now leads the championship by three points over Matt Neal, courtesy of his eighth win of the season. Plato is third, 32 points behind. Next up for the British Touring Car Championship is Silverstone on October, 7th.