Gordon Shedden has won the second of today’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring car Championship races at the Rockingham circuit in Northamptonshire to move back into the series lead.

Shedden, starting from sixth on the grid in his Honda Racing Civic, was soon up to second and then able to pass Jason Plato, the winner of the day’s opening race, for the lead.

From there the Scotsman was never headed but he didn’t have it easy as his mirrors were full of the rapid Frank Wrathall’s Dynojet Toyota Avensis all the way to the chequered flag.

Wrathall finished second – the best result to date for him, his team and a car built to the BTCC’s latest Next Generation Touring Car regulations. Third was Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal as Plato, his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze handicapped with the maximum 45kgs of success ballast, fell to fourth.

The result means that Shedden has regained the championship lead by five points from Neal who’d briefly moved into the top spot following race one. Plato is third, some 31 points adrift of Shedden.

“The Civic was on a mission. From the fourth lap it felt dynamite,” said Shedden, who also set the race’s fastest lap en route to his fifth win of the season. He added: “It’s an abrasive track here so in addition to keeping an eye out for Frank I had to keep it smooth to preserve the tyres.”

Preston racer Wrathall said: “I got alongside Gordon a few times but he always made sure he had the line for the next corner. Of course I wanted to get that first win but second place is still my best result so far and it feels great to have been able to push the Honda so hard.”

WSR BMW driver Nick Foster repeated his fifth place finish from race one thanks to another gutsy drive that in the closing stages saw him catch and pass both James Nash’s 888 Racing/Collins Vauxhall Vectra and Paul O’Neill’s GoMobuleUK.com with tech-speed Cruze which completed the top seven.

Resultantly, Nash, from nearby Newport Pagnell, and 888/Collins have moved into the lead of both the Independent drivers and teams’ championships. A flailing door on their Ford Focus meant previous leaders Mat Jackson and Airwaves Racing were forced to stop the car in the pit lane – their fifth retirement in as many races.

Meanwhile right behind O’Neill at the line in a fine eighth having started back in 14th was local driver, Wellingborough’s Jeff Smith, in his Pirtek Racing Vectra. Coming through from 24th to ninth after starting from the pit lane was Rob Austin in his Rob Austin Racing Audi A4. An equally impressive tenth was Foster’s team-mate Robert Collard who’d started from 22nd.

Eleventh in his Ford Focus, having embarrassingly punted Team Aon team-mate Andy Neate into a spin and retirement, was Tom Chilton. Daniel Welch and Michael Caine also failed to finish, the former’s Welch Motorsport Proton suffering broken front suspension, the latter’s Airwaves Focus an overheating engine. And it was a doubly disastrous race for Special Tuning Racing as Tom Boardman stopped his SEAT Leon in the pit lane while team-mate Dave Newsham never even started after his car suffered an electrical problem.

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