Shedden takes championship lead with race two victory

Gordon Shedden has taken the championship lead after winning Round 17 of the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, with Matt Neal’s weekend of woes continuing with another no score.

After winning the first race, Jason Plato started from pole position with team-mate Alex MacDowall alongside. Everyone made it through the first corner cleanly, but into Turn 2 the Honda was wedged behind Plato with MacDowall on the outside through the hairpin. Shedden’s Honda toughed it out with the Chevrolets and came out first, with Jason Plato losing a spot to James Nash and Alex MacDowall dropping to fifth behind Frank Wrathall.

The Toyota wasn’t done yet, with Wrathall passing reigning champion Plato for third on the same lap, and held on until lap nine when both Chevrolets passed the Toyota at Coram before the car slowed to a halt a few corners later.

Matt Neal had started 18th on the grid and was up to tenth by the end of the first lap. Neal continued to move up the order and was up to sixth place, bearing down on the two Chevrolets until he pitted to change tyres after developing a puncture on lap six. Neal went on to finish 17th and will have it all to do again in race three.

Paul O’Neill put on another great charge, fighting again with Mat Jackson throughout much of the race, this time however it was O’Neill ahead of the Motorbase Performance Ford. O’Neill’s independent Chevrolet also passed Tom Onslow-Cole & Dave Newsham during the race and finished fifth, just behind the two works Chevrolets.

Shedden’s win puts him in the lead of the championship on 146 points, with Mat Jackson still in second position on 141, with Matt Neal dropping to third on 140.

The final race of the day is at 17:05 BST, where the top seven will be reversed, putting the Special Tuning Racing SEAT of Dave Newsham on pole position, with Mat Jackson alongside.