Gordon Shedden has won Oulton Park’s second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race after early leaders Robert Collard and Mat Jackson controversially tangled.
Scotsman Shedden started from fourth on the grid but after he passed Andrew Jordan for third on the opening lap and Collard and Jackson then collided in front of him he was left with a clear road ahead.
Collard, in his eBay Motors BMW, made a terrific start from third on the grid to pass the Honda Civics of both Jordan and race one winner Matt Neal into the first corner.
In fact Neal was soon down to fifth, his Yuasa Honda Racing Team Civic suffering from a loss of turbo boost and easy prey for Jackson’s Redline Racing Ford Focus, team-mate Shedden and Pirtek Racing’s Jordan.
Jackson then started attacking Collard for the lead and exiting the Island Bend hairpin shortly before mid-distance their cars collided. Collard briefly slid off the track with both then needing to make pit stops to have punctured tyres replaced. Jackson would later retire with engine problems and both he and Collard were later fuming with one another.
Shedden then controlled the small gap to the chasing Jordan for his fifth win of the season – a result that has enabled him to further increase his championship lead. Behind, Daniel Welch had looked on course for a maiden podium result, running third in his Welch Motorsport Proton Persona before Jason Plato, with a scintillating drive through the field from 22nd, squeezed past to grab the spot in his MG KX Momentum Racing MG6. Still, fourth was a best-ever result for Welch who’d finished sixth in the day’s first race.
Shedden, who also set a new race lap record, said: “I really didn’t expect that after qualifying and the first race but it’s all about getting yourself into the best position possible to capitalise when things kick off and it fell my way…”
And Jordan added: “Gordon getting past me on the first lap decided the race. I got trapped behind Matt (Neal) who slowed going up Clay Hill and Gordon went past us both. Had that not happened I feel I could have kept Gordon at bay as we seemed very evenly matched.”
Plato commented: “I really enjoyed that race – it’s always enjoyable overtaking people. More importantly it’s salvaged my day a bit after our problems in race one. It’s also a bit of a thanks to my team who had a big battle on their hands to get the car ready in time.”
Neal took fifth ahead of Collard’s team-mate Nick Foster and Lea Wood, equalling his previous career-best result of seventh – achieved 12 months ago at Oulton – in his BINZ Racing Vauxhall Vectra. Redstone’s Liam Griffin was a career-best eighth ahead of eBay’s Tom Onslow-Cole, who survived a spin to take ninth, and Dave Newsham in his ES Racing.com Vectra.
Elsewhere, Tony Hughes was a career best 12th in his Speedworks Toyota Avensis but there was retirement for team-mate Adam Morgan who span his car a long way off the track at Cascades corner. Chris James repaid his ES Racing mechanics with 13th after they had hastily patched up his Vectra after a bruising crash in race one.
Ollie Jackson and Frank Wrathall finished 15th and 17th after pit stops to have grass cleared from the radiators of their AmD Tuning.com VW Golf and Dynojet Toyota Avensis respectively. Splitting them in 16th after a pit stop to have a loose turbo pipe on his car repaired was Redstone’s Liam Griffin.
Plato’s team-mate Andy Neate retired a smoky MG early on but not before Will Bratt had crashed his Rob Austin Racing Audi A4 exiting Knickerbrook.
