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am Tordoff took his maiden Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship victory after a fantastic start in the first race of the weekend, giving MG KX Momentum Racing a second 1-2 finish of the season.
Honda Yuasa Racing’s Gordon Shedden held off from a chasing BMW of Colin Turkington to claim the third podium position.
A dramatic start to the race saw Dan Welch’s Proton Persona spin off the track at Agostini after contact with eBay Motors’ Rob Collard, however managed to recover and continue albeit several places down.
With a good start under his belt, Tordoff held on to the lead over the first two laps, with Plato, carrying 18kg of ballast on board his MG6, remaining close to his tail. Meanwhile, Will Bratt pitted his Rob Austin Racing Audi having being shown the black and orange mechanical warning flag after the bonnet flew up onto the windscreen hampering his view.
Having had a disappointing performance in qualifying in the second Honda Yuasa Racing Civic, Matt Neal was making his way up the order having started from eleventh place. An off for Warren Scott in the new BMR Restart/Team HARD Passat saw him having to recover after making up seven places since the start.
2012 Snetterton pole sitter Frank Wrathall’s weekend wasn’t going to plan, as he parked his Dynojet Toyota on the side of the track with an issue, whilst Jack Goff was having a good run in eighth in the RCIB Insurance Racing Insignia.
As the laps tumbled, Gordon Shedden was reigning in second place man Jason Plato, whilst Sam Tordoff remained cool and collected at the front of the field holding a 2.2 second lead above his team-mate.
A battle late in the race between Matt Neal and Mat Jackson saw the Airwaves Racing driver take eighth from a heavily-weighted Civic of Neal going round the outside of Brundle.
Sam Tordoff took the chequered flag and a first ever victory ahead of team mate Jason Plato and Gordon Shedden, despite a four-way battle for the remaining podium places developing in the final stages.
eBay Motors’ Colin Turkington ended his race a fifth of a second behind Shedden, whilst Dave Newsham lost the rear end of his Speedworks Toyota as he approached Brundle/Nelson, resulting in a loss of places after a spin. He came home across the line in eighteenth behind Dan Welch who recovered well after his earlier spin.
After working solidly during the six week break Airwaves Racing were back on form as the second half of the season got underway. Despite suffering a heavy shunt in qualifying, Aron Smith was able to maintain his starting position of sixth, whilst team mate Mat Jackson came home two places down in eighth.
Lea Wood won in the Jack Sears category ahead of David Nye, whilst Liam Griffin failed to finish after an issue forced him to abandon his Addison Lee Motorbase Ford Focus on the grass.
The IP Tech Race Chevrolet Cruze – under the control of Andy Neate – came home in twenty-second in its first outing, showing potential for the remainder of the season.
Race One Classification:
1) Sam Tordoff
2) Jason Plato
3) Gordon Shedden
4) Colin Turkington
5) Andrew Jordan
6) Aron Smith
7) Adam Morgan
8) Mat Jackson
9) Matt Neal
10) Rob Collard
11) Jack Goff
12) Tom Onslow-Cole
13) Jeff Smith
14) Nick Foster
15) Rob Austin
Fastest Lap: Sam Tordoff – Lap 3 – 1:58:092 By Nikki Thompson – Photos by Marc Waller
