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BTCC drivers say Donington Park Race 3 should never have been started

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Many drivers have stated that the third race of the day should never have been started, after heavy rain fell on the circuit just ahead of the already delayed start time of 17:30, with a number of cars aquaplaning off at the first attempt.

The race was then red flagged, with Matt Neal’s Honda stuck in the gravel at McLean’s after spinning out of the lead, while further behind half a dozen cars had gone off at the Old Hairpin.

The race was resumed over half an hour later after the rain had subsided, still in wet but drying conditions.

Rob Collard was one of the casualties at the Old Hairpin, and the West Surrey Racing BMW driver went on to finish 13th with damage to his 125i.

“I feel the first part of the race should not have been started,” said Collard to TouringCarTimes. “it was dangerous and the safety car can see that.

“They’ve got to make these decisions, and they should have known it was going to be carnage. I sustained quite serious suspension damage on the first start, and we were lucky to make the ‘second’ race.”

Honda’s Matt Neal echoed Collard’s sentiment.

“It definitely should not have been started,” said Neal to TouringCarTimes. “I said it on the green flag lap, I said if they start this it’ll be carnage, and it was. It shouldn’t even have been started under safety car, the conditions were horrendous.”

Colin Turkington, eventual race winner following Shedden’s exclusion, also found the conditions challenging.

“It was he trickiest conditions I’ve ever been in,” said Turkington to TouringCarTimes. “On the green flag laps, (when) you touch the brakes (or when) you touch the throttle, the car didn’t want to know about it. At the first start I knew I just had to keep it on the road. It felt like I was driving the slowest lap of my live, but then so was everyone else.”

Team Dynamics team principal Steve Neal, whose team had a disastrous second race with Matt Neal not allowed to take the restart due to outside assistance, and Shedden excluded due to a ride height test failure, added: “They shouldn’t have started the race. I asked ‘who said we should start the race?’ They said ‘the driver of the safety car’. I said ‘the one with the four-wheel drive and the ABS brakes?’.”