Jason Plato wins final race, Gordon Shedden is champion

Honda Yuasa Racing’s Gordon Shedden is the 2015 BTCC champion after a stirring drive to fourth from 19th in the Brands Hatch finale, denying dominant race winner Jason Plato by four points.

Team BMR’s Plato took the lead at the start and rode out three safety car periods to take a maximum 22 point score, but an inspired Shedden carved his way through the field in a thrilling race to take a second title.

Shedden’s pass on Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan on lap 15 gave him enough points to take the championship, but he continued to dice with Triple Eight Racing’s Jack Goff on a final two laps which had everyone watching on the edge of their seats.

It capped a remarkable end to a day which has dealt out drama by the bagful, and in Shedden the series has a worthy winner after a champion’s drive.

Behind race winner Plato, Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson completed a remarkable day in second, with Goff holding off Shedden in third. Matt Neal came home fifth after allowing Shedden to pass on the penultimate lap, with Morgan next home in sixth.

Rob Collard, Andrew Jordan, Aron Smith and Andy Priaulx rounded out the top 10, with Team BMR’s Colin Turkington finishing 12th to hold on to his lead in the independents’ standings.

There was a strong indication of the drama which lay ahead at the start, when Neal outbraked himself into Paddock Hill and Plato needed no second invitation to take the lead.

The safety car was deployed for the first time when Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram ended in the Druids gravel after contact with Power Maxed Racing’s Dave Newsham, with AmD Tuning’s Jake Hill going off at the same spot in a separate incident.

Then after the green flags flew before the start of lap four, JWT Performance’s Stewart Lines managed to spin his Toyota Avensis into the gravel exiting Clearways before making it to the start/finish line.

Then, astonishingly, Newsham also departed the scene at Clearways as the green flags flew, causing another safety car period. This still gave Goff and Jackson the time to make a move on Neal, with both making it cleanly through at Paddock Hill Bend before the full-course yellows were deployed.

When the racing eventually resumed on lap nine, Shedden started making swift forward progress, passing Jeff Smith, a helpful Jordan, Aron Smith and Collard to make it to sixth by lap 12.

Neal was in the midst of a great battle with Jackson and Goff, when the Honda dived up the inside of the MG into Paddock on lap 14, ran wide, and allowed Jackson to pass them both into Druids.

Shedden made the decisive pass on Morgan on the following tour, before passing Neal on lap 17 to make doubly sure of the points.