Photo: PSP Images

Rob Collard wins at Thruxton, as Race 2 is red flagged twice

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Rob Collard won the second race at Thruxton in a race which ran at just over half the scheduled laps, after a one-hour stoppage due to a major crash for Triple Eight’s Dan Lloyd on the opening lap.

Matt Neal led the way at the first start ahead of Team Dynamics team-mate Gordon Shedden, with Jack Goff holding on to third in the Eurotech Honda.

Motorbase’s Mat Jackson was knocked off on the opening lap and came into the pits to have his radiator cleared, while the main drama was a few corners later at Church.

Triple Eight MG’s Daniel Lloyd got a run on team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith, and went down the left side at the end of the first lap. Taylor-Smith then tagged the rear of Senna Proctor’s Power Maxed Vauxhall, which sent him into a spin, which collected Lloyd’s MG6, with all three sliding off into the gravel.

Lloyd’s car hit the barrier at speed and launched into the air, with significant damage sustained by the barrier, causing the officials to red flag the race on lap three.

The race was suspended for a full hour as repairs were undertaken to the barrier, with the restart seeing Neal line-up ahead of Shedden, Goff and Sutton.

At the second start, Rob Collard launched into third position from sixth on the grid in his West Surrey Racing BMW, and then challenged Shedden for second at the end of the lap, with Goff also making his way past at the chicane into third position.

Shedden managed to get back ahead of Goff on the second lap and quickly caught up with Collard’s BMW, while Neal pulled into the pits at the end of the lap with power steering issues.

Goff lost another position to the SPeedworks Toyota of Tom Ingram, while the other Toyota of Rob Austin was able to pass Colin Turkington’s BMW for fifth on lap four.

On lap six, Martin Depper made a mistake at Village on his own in the #30 Motorbase Ford and smashed into the tyre barriers, with the race red flagged again after seven laps, with the race result declared, with Collard the winner ahead of Shedden and Ingram.

For Race 3, Colin Turkington will start from pole position with the top six reversed.

The timetable for the rest of the day is up in the air due to the delays to Race 2, with a 6:30pm curfew at the circuit.