Shedden just wins ahead of a storming Collard

Gordon Shedden won the first British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Croft with just 35 thousands of a second ahead of a storming Rob Collard.
“I am delighted to win, absolutely brilliant. I knew that Collard was coming and the BMW had a lot of traction out of the hairpin. I gave him half a carlength,” said Collard with a smile.

Collard stormed past pole position man Tom Chilton early in the race and set his sights on Shedden in the lead. Shedden passed Chilton in the start and the Team Aon driver later had to retire in the pits after dropping well down due to a slow puncture.

With just two laps left, Collard had caught up with Shedden. After the final lap driving bumper to bumper, Shedden went defensive in the final corner, allowing Collard to take height and launch an attack on the outside in a dragrace to the finish.

Shedden pushed Collard on to the grass which gave a seriously close finish between the both, 0.035 seconds separating them.

“It was very, very close. I had a good run and he pushed me right out on the grass. It was a bit unfair, the stewards will have to look at that. One lap more and I might have had him,” said Collard.

Jason Plato secured third, right ahead of championship rival Matt Neal. Plato managed to get the jump on Neal in the start of the race and stayed ahead.

“A really good result with that sort of weight. Matt knows there is a long way to go of the season, the last thing we want is getting in to a tangle and I never felt he was about do pull a dirty move in the race,” said Plato.

Paul O’Neill made a strong race to fifth ahead of the two battling Vauxhall’s of James Nash and Daniel Lloyd in sixth and seventh respectively.

Tom Onslow-Cole finished eight ahead of Mat Jackson and Andrew Jordan.