Shedden wins chaotic first race at Donington

Gordon Shedden has won the first race at Donington Park from Tom Chilton and Mat Jackson, as a collision involving Matt Neal, Tom Onslow-Cole and Jason Plato causes retirement for the championship leader.

Pole sitter Tom Chilton bogged down at the start, which allowed team mate Tom Onslow-Cole straight through into the lead, with Gordon Shedden moving up to second in his Honda Civic. Chilton settled into third, whilst Neal and Plato dropped to 7th and 8th at the start behind Andrew Jordan and Rob Collard.

For the first part of the race, the main battle was between Chilton and Shedden, with Chilton passing the Honda on lap three, and as Gordon tried to re-pass, the two touched, causing Gordon to lose ground but stayed in third.

Meanwhile, Rob Collard in the West Surrey Racing BMW was on a charge, and passed Andrew Jordan for fourth on the same lap. The next lap, Jordan also lost ground to the title battling duo of Matt Neal and Jason Plato, whilst Gordon Shedden finally managed to get back ahead of Tom Chilton’s Ford for second place.

Neal and Plato continued their progress, both moving past Rob Collard on lap five, who seemed to stay out of the way of the championship fighting drivers, and so the top five was now made-up again of all of the top five drivers in the championship.

On Lap 6, Paul O’Neill was involved an in incident with Tom Boardman, and spun off in front of Steven Kane, who was making up ground from his 21st place start, having passed nine cars on the first lap. Kane took avoiding action, but the inevitable contact saw O’Neill’s Tech-Speed Honda Integra stranded at Coppice and the safety car was called.

Gordon Shedden at this point was battling Tom Onslow-Cole hard for the lead, and nearly led across the line before reaching the safety car, but found himself passed sneakily by Tom Chilton on the other side. Chilton relinquished the position however as the pack ordered themselves around the safety car as O’Neill’s car was recovered.

The restart was on lap 12, when the key moment of the race took place.

After the restart, Tom Onslow-Cole appeared to slow from the lead, with Shedden and Chilton moving up ahead of him. Heading into the Goddards Chicane, Matt Neal also passed Tom Onslow-Cole on the inside, with Plato and Collard also following through on the inside of the Ford.

Then Plato tapped the back of Neal braking into the chicane, which propelled the Honda across the chicane and into the foam corner barriers – the Honda then re-emerged through the chicane and came back on track hitting Plato in the front-left quarter, whom as a result and with damage went straight into the barriers, with the luckless Andrew Jordan also caught up behind and trapped in the gravel.

Collard spun behind in the fracas, whilst Onslow-Cole & James Nash picked up damage from being hit by the foam barriers. Onslow-Cole’s damage was to the front spoiler and he continued on, whilst James Nash had collected a cover on his Vauxhall Vectra blocking the radiator and had to pit, after grabbing third place.

A lengthy safety car period again followed as Jordan’s Vectra was recovered, whilst the corner barriers were placed strategically to protect Plato’s Chevrolet which was buried deep in the gravel trap.

The new race order was Shedden from Chilton, with Mat Jackson now third, Alex MacDowall fourth and Matt Neal and Tom Onslow-Cole behind them who had survived the incident.

Tom Onslow-Cole still seemed to be suffering, as he was passed by independents rival Kane for fifth, and then Tom Boardman’s SEAT to end up 8th.

The incident filled race saw James Kaye on his BTCC return pick up a points finish with ninth, passing Dave Pinkney’s Vectra, who had just had an engine change in the morning on the final lap. Pinkney therefore picked up the final point of the day in tenth.

The result means Jason Plato’s lead in the championship is reduced to 14 points from Matt Neal, with Gordon Shedden just three points behind his Honda Racing Team teammate in 3rd.