Photo: PSP Images

Second win for Shedden ahead of Neal

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Gordon Shedden secured his second victory of the day in the second BTCC race at Croft, this time ahead of his team mate Matt Neal.
“To win with 45 kilos extra weight is fantastic. The car was just great, amazing effort from everyone at Honda,” said Shedden.

Neal secured second just 0.7 seconds behind his team mate and was in briefly in the lead on the penultimate lap. But Neal was just let past by Shedden in order to secure one extra championship point for being in the lead.

Neal got past championship rival Jason PLato in the early stages of the race. The move was brave in one of the fastest corners of the circuit, a move and result Neal was very pleased with.

“Fantastic result for the team. I didn’t expect to get past him [Plato] to be honest. But the opportunity was there and I took it,” said Neal.

Plato held second initially and was fighting for the lead with Shedden. But when Neal got past, the Chevrolet driver was unable to respond and dropped back.

“Neal used me as a bit of a brake, but that’s touring car racing, isn’t it? I am pleased to be honest, but I pulled a bit too much out of the tyres in the battle with Gordon in the beginning,” said Plato.

Another driver initially involved in the battle for the lead was Rob Collard. The BMW driver got a good start and was up alongside Shedden in the run for the first corner.

But Collard became the victim on the second lap when Neal launched his Honda Civic on the inside of Paul O’Neill in the battle for fourth. Neil and O’Neill touched and drifted wide in to Collard, resulting in a spin for the WSR driver. Collard later climbed back up to eight position.

O’Neill was able to continue and got involved in a huge fight for fourth between him and Tom Onslow-Cole. The Ford driver was ahead until the final corner of the final lap when O’Neill threw his car on the inside of Onslow-Cole.

The both made contact, but O’Neill came through first and finished fourth with smoke pouring from his Honda Integra as a result of the final corner contact.

“I tried my best to defend but Paul found a gap somehow, fair play to him. It was a fantastic race, very close,” said O’Neill after the race.

Tom Boardman claimed sixth ahead of Andrew Jordan in seventh. Alex MacDowall finished ninth with a very damaged Chevrolet Cruze. Andy Neat rounded off top ten.