Andrew Jordan made the most of his reverse grid pole position to take the third and final Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race win of the day at Knockhill.
Having started the weekend with a six place grid drop and suffering from a slow puncture in the first race, the Pirtek racer was able to rack up the championship points with a victory – and now lies second in the standings – six points behind race three’s second place man Matt Neal.
Rob Collard also fought well having started from fourth to finish third, whilst team mate Colin Turkington – who had taken two wins for eBay Motors earlier on in the day – finished the race in fourth, however was later excluded from the results due to a technical infringement in which his BMW was found to exceed the maximum boost limit.
There was drama before the race had even begun as a problem for Sam Tordoff saw him come to a stop coming out of the hairpin. Marshals were quick on the scene to get the car pushed off the track whilst the race got underway without delay.
Frank Wrathall also retired early on in the race after spinning off coming out of the Seat Curve, with Warren Scott also being forced to retire with damage after contact with Airwaves Racing’s Aron Smith.
The safety car was called as marshals recovered Scott’s stricken Passat, meaning Jordan had it all to do again at the re-start to defend from a racy Rob Collard. He managed to sprint away coming out of the hairpin leaving the rest of the field having to catch up over the line.
Aron Smith got into more trouble after coming into contact with IP Tech Race’s Mike Bushell’s Chevrolet; having tapped the Cruze’s rear sending Bushell into a spin, Smith was collected as he recovered and was sent into the barrier. The Dubliner pitted but re-joined the race.
Paul O’Neill had made it back out on track after a heroic effort by Team HARD. to repair the damage from race one, however ended his race seven laps down after pitting with an issue.
More drama saw Scotsman Gordon Shedden’s Honda Racing Civic suffer a catastrophic engine failure which subsequently caught fire as it approached turn one. Marshals were again quick on the scene to distinguish any flames as Shedden got out of the car to safety – resulting in a non-finish and more importantly no points for his championship tally.
Liam Griffin did well to steer his Addison Lee Motorbase Ford Focus away from the parked up MG of Sam Tordoff, as contact from Team HARD’s Kieran Gallagher saw him fired off the track at the hairpin.
Gallagher was given an official reprimand from the stewards after the race because of the incident with Griffin, whilst Aron Smith was also reprimanded and given two penalty points for his incident with Warren Scott. The stewards also gave Smith a £500 fine and a further three penalty points on his licence because of the incident with Mike Bushell.
Having now accumulated three stewards reprimands this season, the Airwaves Racing driver will now face a six place grid drop after qualifying at Rockingham.
In terms of the championship, Matt Neal holds a six point lead over Andrew Jordan going into Rockingham in two weeks’ time. Colin Turkington is now ten points ahead of Gordon Shedden in fourth, with Jason Plato trailing behind in fifth after a disappointing weekend at Knockhill.
Race Three Classification:
1. Andrew Jordan
2. Matt Neal
3. Rob Collard
4. Rob Austin
5. Jason Plato
6. Dan Welch
7. Mat Jackson
8. Nick Foster
9. Adam Morgan
10. Will Bratt
11. Ollie Jackson
12. Lea Wood
13. Liam Gallagher
14. David Nye
15. Aron Smith
Fastest lap: Andrew Jordan – Lap 12 – 52.888 By Nikki Thompson – Photos by Marc Waller
