Having been disappointed after the second race of the day, Gordon Shedden took the third and final Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship win at Snetterton ahead of the two Airwaves Racing drivers Mat Jackson and Aron Smith.
Dave Newsham was drawn by first-ever series champion Jack Sears to start the reverse grid race from pole position, although a brake failure on the way to the grid worried the team ahead of the start. The two MG’s who had performed strongly during the first race of the day, would be starting from the back of the field after their demises in race two.
Non-starters included AmDTuning.com’s James Kaye, who had a power steering issue and Warren Scott, who had had problems all weekend in the new BMR Restart/Team Hard Passat.
Colin Turkington made another good start when the lights went out, whilst a poor start for Newsham saw him fall down the order. Jason Plato spectacularly rolled his KX Momentum Racing MG on the opening lap at Montreal which saw him out of the race, whilst at the same time, contact between Newsham and Matt Neal saw the Speedworks Toyota out with damage and Neal continuing albeit a lot of places down.
The incident brought out the safety car, which saw Liam Griffin come into the pits to retire after a disastrous weekend.
At the restart, contact between Will Bratt and Dan Welch saw Bratt heading for the barriers and Welch limping back to the pits with a puncture whilst Ollie Jackson also had a near miss in the second Speedworks Toyota having had a spin.
Having won the second race of the day, Andrew Jordan was in seventh and in a good position in terms of the championship after Matt Neal’s earlier demise; however the triple champion had now made his way through from twenty-second to fourteenth.
Having been pushing for the lead, Gordon Shedden finally got through after another controversial move saw him tap Colin Turkington at Agostini, resulting in the Irishman spinning back to seventh place.
Airwaves Racing had been performing well all weekend after their mid-season work efforts, with a battle breaking out in the second half of the race between third place man Aron Smith and Adam Morgan in the Cicely Racing Toyota. Smith 
had some slight damage to the front of his Ford, as some sparks were coming from the bodywork – however this didn’t hamper his performance as he defended from Morgan.
Matt Neal was man on a mission in his Honda Civic, and having made a move on the eBay Motors of Nick Foster, was now in eighth position. More disappointment for Jack Goff saw him back in the pit lane with an engine issue.
Gordon Shedden took the win followed by a best finish of the year for Mat Jackson in second and Aron Smith – the Dubliner’s second podium of the day.
Adam Morgan couldn’t make his way past for third, despite Sam Tordoff – having made his way through the pack getting involved later in the race.
Andrew Jordan battled his way through exhaust fumes from inside the cockpit to end the race in sixth ahead of a recovering Turkington and Matt Neal – gaining some valuable championship points.
Lea Wood made it a first ever Jack Sears three out of three and now leads the S2000 standings with nine wins over Liam Griffin’s four.
Jason Plato was unharmed in his early incident and joked with ITV4 pitlane reporter Louise Goodman during the race that he “…wasn’t planning of going to Alton Towers”.
The stewards allowed Shedden to keep his win after his move on Shedden, however was given a £500 driving standards fine and three penalty points on his license.
In terms of the championship, Matt Neal hangs on to his lead albeit narrowly as Andrew Jordan sits second and nine points behind. Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington hold onto to third and fourth respectively – with Jason Plato now fifth after his weekend to forget.
The series rolls into Scotland for Knockhill on the 24th/25th August.
Race Two Classification:
1) Gordon Shedden
2) Mat Jackson
3) Aron Smith
4) Adam Morgan
5) Sam Tordoff
6) Andrew Jordan
7) Colin Turkington
8) Matt Neal
9) Rob Collard
10) Nick Foster
11) Frank Wrathall
12) Rob Austin
13) Ollie Jackson
14) Robb Holland
15) Lea Wood
Fastest lap – Gordon Shedden – Lap 5 – 1:58:493 By Nikki Thompson – Photos by Marc Waller
