BTCC – Snetterton Catch-Up – Race Two

R2 - Kaye, Griffin and Nye battle (photo by Marc Waller)Andrew Jordan claimed the second Snetterton Dunlop MSA British Touring Championship victory of the day ahead of Matt Neal and Aron Smith – who made a welcome return to the podium for Airwaves Racing.

 

There was a frantic work effort by the team before the pit lane closed, with Smith’s NGTC Focus being repaired after coming back in after the first race dropping fluid. With less than two minutes remaining, he made it out to take up his sixth position on the grid ahead of the green flag.

The same couldn’t be said for Team HARD’s Jack Goff, who was pushed back into the pits with a turbo issue before the start of his race.


Both Jason Plato and Colin Turkington made good starts out of the box, with Plato taking the lead over team mate and race one winner Sam Tordoff, putting him in the clutches of the Irishman. Turkington made his way through into second place going through the Montreal Hairpin.

A dramatic start to the second lap saw a three way battle between the S2000 runners James Kaye, David Nye and Liam Griffin end in tatters, as contact between the two Fords saw Griffin end up in the gravel and out of the race – bringing out the safety car.

At the restart, Plato broke away from the rest of the field coming across the start-finish straight, whilst behind, Andrew Jordan was coming into play, making a move on Gordon Shedden’s Honda Yuasa Racing Civic at Montreal for fourth.

In an attempt to get his position back, Gordon Shedden got into a tangle as the two Airwaves Racing drivers Jackson and Smith made their way through the field. After some slight rubbing with the pack, Shedden was forced down the order, whilst upfront; Jason Plato had slowed on track due to a fuel pump issue, allowing Colin Turkington to take the lead.

Jason crawled back to the pits to retire from the race.

Andrew Jordan (photo by Marc Waller)Sam Tordoff kept on pushing for the lead, whilst Jordan continued to catch the pair, ready to take advantage should the two come together. With Jordan running quick on the Dunlop soft tyres, he was soon close enough to make a move on the MG, taking second place at Agostini. However, Tordoff would soon drop back through the order, leaving the Smith and Jackson in their Airwaves Focuses to take third and fourth – having the best race of their seasons so far.

With the top eight runners all bunching together with a heavily defensive Colin Turkington clinging on to the lead from Jordan, this gave chance for the Honda of Matt Neal to move up to the order – sparing Jackson of his fourth position.

A controversial move from the Pirtek Honda of Jordan saw him come into contact with Colin Turkington as he closed the door at Oggies, leaving Jordan to take the lead and the eBay BMW falling down into the bottom end of the top ten.

Rob Collard – who had been hoping for a good result in this race – was left to stand by at the side of track after contact saw him spin out with rear suspension damage to his eBay Motors car.

Sam Tordoff struggled to make it round the final lap after going off track numerous times due to an underlying issue with his KX Momentum MG whilst up ahead; Matt Neal was fighting for a possible second place, and made his move having started the race in ninth.

Griffin contact - R2 (photo by Marc Waller)Andrew Jordan took the win with Neal holding second from Smith over the line. Mat Jackson brought the second Airwaves Racing machine home in fourth, much to the delight of the team. Colin Turkington recovered to sixth, whilst Shedden couldn’t make up places after his earlier incident and ended seventh. At a circuit where he took his first BTCC win, Dave Newsham – who started the race eighteenth, finished in eighth place. Frank Wrathall too made a lot of ground over the extended fourteen lap race to finish tenth having started from the back of the pack.

Lea Wood took the second Jack Sear’s win of the day in thirteenth, whilst Andy Neate made even more improvement in the new Chevrolet Cruze to finish seventeenth.

With ten points separating Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan in the championship, all eyes were on who would be leading the standings after the final reverse grid race.

The stewards of the race later saw Jordan’s move on Turkington to be a racing incident, however the Pirtek racer was reprimanded with two penalty points on his license. The driver will now face a six place grid drop after Knockhill’s qualifying session having acquired three penalties in the 2013 season duration.

Race Two Classification:

1) Andrew Jordan
2) Matt Neal
3) Aron Smith
4) Mat Jackson
5) Adam Morgan
6) Colin Turkington
7) Gordon Shedden
8) Dave Newsham
9) Tom Onslow-Cole
10) Frank Wrathall
11) Ollie Jackson
12) Nick Foster
13) Lea Wood
14) Rob Austin
15) Robb Holland

Fastest Lap – Andrew Jordan – Lap 6: 1:58:762 By Nikki Thompson –  Photos by Marc Waller


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