Collard leads dominant West Surrey Racing 1-2 at Knockhill

Rob Collard led team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole to the team’s first 1-2 since Croft 2009, leading by 15 seconds over Gordon Shedden, who passed Aron Smith at the final corner on the last lap in an action packed race.

At the green flag, Collard jumped into the lead in the rear-wheel drive West Surrey Racing BMW, overtaking pole-sitter Jason Plato into the SEAT curve, with Aron Smith holding on to third in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST.

On lap two, Frank Wrathall’s Toyota and Andy Neate’s MG both went off at Scotsman Corner in separate incidents, but up front Jason Plato was spun out of second place at Clark’s with contact from Aron Smith’s Ford, who was simultaneously defending from Onslow-Cole’s BMW.

Plato was left in the gravel with Smith falling behind Onslow-Cole’s BMW as the safety car was called whilst all the stricken cars required recovery.

After the restart on lap 11, the two BMWs started to break away from the pack, whilst Paul O’Neill’s Speedworks Toyota was fighting Aron Smith’s Ford for third for several laps. O’Neill tapped the rear of Smith’s Ford on lap 17 at the hairpin, but was unable to complete the pass, and found himself out of position at the start of following lap, with Gordon Shedden’s Honda Civic passing O’Neill at Scotsman Corner.

Shedden was now fighting Smith for third, but was unable to do anything about the Irishman’s Ford Focus on the straights, only closing up to Smith through the corners. Contact was made twice in the final laps, with Shedden hitting Smith at the hairpin which gave him a run on him up to the finish line, passing the chequered flag 0.011 seconds ahead.

Collard led the race for all bar one lap, allowing his team-mate through on lap 23 to allow him to grab the additional point available for leading a lap, and the two WSRs’ finished in formation over 15 seconds clear of Shedden’s Honda.

Race Two takes place at 14:17 BST.