Aron Smith holds on in tense Snetterton finale
Aron Smith drove a textbook defensive race to hold off a huge train of cars and take a second win for Team BMR in the BTCC, with the top 10 cars covered by little over five seconds at the flag.
Starting from the reverse grid pole, Smith made no mistakes and drove a very wide Volkswagen CC, to hold off race-long pressure from Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson and eight other cars close behind.
Championship leader Colin Turkington came home third, when Jackson’s team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi lost the podium position he’d held for the whole race, after a huge slide at the Bomb Hole on the final lap.
Triple Eight’s Jason Plato rounded off an excellent day with a canny run to fourth ahead of Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden, with Rob Collard charging through from 17th to sixth.
Sam Tordoff, Adam Morgan, Marc Hynes and Jack Goff completed the tightly-packed top 10, while Giovanardi ended up 13th after apparent contact from Collard heading into Murrays after recovering from his spin.
As with the earlier two races, there were a number of controversial incidents, and ones which may have ramifications in the championship race.
West Surrey Racing’s Turkington made contact with Matt Neal at Montreal on lap seven, causing the Civic Tourer to drop out of the top 10, while Neal had earlier made contact with Morgan at Agostini, causing the Mercedes A-Class to lose two positions.
Up at the front, Jackson passed Giovanardi for second at Montreal just as Turkington and Neal made contact, with Morgan passing the BMW on the exit of the corner. The 2009 champion fought back quickly, and Morgan then lost two more places.
Elsewhere, there was a sizeable shunt between Eurotech Racing’s Martin Depper, and West Surrey Racing’s Nick Foster, when the former lost control at Riches on lap three and latter couldn’t avoid him.
Turkington has now stretched his championship lead to 23 points, but could be in trouble for the move on Neal.
