Shedden leads Honda 1-2 in wet second Rockingham race

Gordon Shedden headed a Honda 1-2 in the second race at Rockingham with team mate Matt Neal in second. Race one winner Jason Plato finished third for MG, just over six seconds behind the Honda duo.

Andy Jordan and Rob Collard challenged Plato’s lead at the start. After the Honda passed the Race 1 winner, Collard overtook the MG as well, giving Shedden the chance to move up to fourth. Soon after that Andy Neate went off, which brought the Safety Car out on track.

Jordan made a mistake at Deene due to the tricky track conditions, which allowed Shedden to take the lead. Meanwhile Neal and Plato were fighting for position and when the MG driver overtook Collard’s BMW the 2011 Champion followed him through. After that the Honda driver passed Plato as well and went on to take second behind his team-mate.

As the race was in its closing stages, Shedden briefly allowed Neal to finish a lap in the lead to take an extra point before passing back.

As Shedden went on to take the win for Honda, Mat Jackson took fourth for Motorbase Performance at the end of a tough race, in which an early off forced him to recover and finish ahead of Frank Wrathall, another great protagonist of the race.

Aron Smith and Ollie Jackson both impressed as the Motorbase Performance driver went from last to sixth and the Golf climbed up to eighth. Adam Morgan, who made an error in the closing stages of the race, and Nick Foster completed the top ten.

Morgan will start from pole after the draw decided the top nine had to be reversed. He will be joined by Ollie Jackson in the first row, followed by Jordan and Aron Smith.

Neal now leads the championship by a mere point over team-mate Shedden. Plato is still in third, a further 25 points adrift, ahead of Andy Jordan (-41).