Collard wins the third BTCC race at Croft to give the WSR team a hat-trick of victories

Collard becomes the third WSR driver to win at Croft today (photo by Marc Waller)

Collard becomes the third WSR driver to win at Croft today (photo by Marc Waller)Rob Collard has completed a hat trick of victories for the WSR team as he won the final race of the day at Croft from the reverse grid pole.

His win means all three of the WSR drivers have won a race each today.

It wasn’t a lights to flag victory for the Hampshire driver though as Gordon Shedden powered through from second on the grid to take the lead. Shedden then pulled away and looked set for victory but unfortunately for him, this was his race on the option soft tyres (Drivers must use them in one race per weekend) as they went past their best Shedden fell into the clutches of Collard. He was pinned to the tail of the Honda for a while before making contact on the approach to the chicane. This unsettled Shedden enough for Collard to pass him into the chicane. Shedden straight lined it and cut across the grass putting him in the sights of Priaulx. This became the battle to watch and Priaulx finally made the pass going into the hairpin for the final time to make it one two for WSR.

Behind the battles for the top three positions; Colin Turkington ran ahead of team mate Plato for much of the race and crossed the line ahead to take fourth and the independent championship win.

Behind Plato came Sam Tordoff in sixth, off the podium for the first time today but he’s had a successful Croft weekend. Tom Ingram scored more good points in seventh with Jack Goff in eighth, again the best MG. Andrew Jordan finished another disappointing weekend with a DNF after contact left him with broken suspension.

Matt Neal took ninth, not quite on the pace he’d like this weekend. The top ten was completed by Warren Scott, boss of Team BMR.

The rest of the points scorers were Newsham, Aron Smith, Moffat, Jeff Smith and Cook.

Austin made heavy contact with Ingra who did well to save it (photo by Marc Waller) thumb gw280615c3 Jordan retired with suspension damage (photo by Marc Waller The BMWs close on Shedden (photo by Marc Waller) Priaulx was happy with his days work (photo by Marc Waller) Collard was over joyed to take another win (photo by Marc Waller) The busy podium (photo by Marc Waller)

Nicolas Hamilton achieved his aim of three finishes and took his best result of his day in the final race with twenty second. The other debutant, Max Coates also finished in twentieth. Alex Martin won the Jack Sears trophy for rookie drivers for this weekend despite ending race three with a heavily damaged Dextra racing Ford Focus.

Full results are on TSL

Shedden now leads the championship from Plato. Next up are Neal, Tordoff and Turkington. Andrew Jordan is still in sixth despite not getting the results he hoped for. Early championship leader Jack Goff is now down in tenth. Morgan, Collard and Priaulx are in seventh, eigth and ninth.

The championship now takes its summer break. It resumes in seven weeks time at Snetterton in Norfolk. Advanced tickets are already available from the Snetterton website.  By Marc Waller

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