Andrew Jordan has won his first race since Croft 2014 in an exciting second race here at Thruxton.
After the multiple tyre issues in race one, both this race and the following third race distances have been reduced to twelve laps. The tyre issues have been caused by unseasonably high track temperatures with the temperature in race one reaching 33°c.
Maximum ballast laden Adam Morgan made a reasonably good start off the line but Andrew Jordan made an even better one as he shot past Tom Ingram to run second. Ingram’s bad start had been due to an accidental jump start. The car had moved very briefly before the lights and Ingram got on the brakes to stop it creeping just as the lights changed.
Things went from bad to worse for Ingram when he was then penalised for the Jump start he had tried so hard to avoid!
So it was Morgan from Jordan and then the three WSR run BMW’s, Collard from Goff and Tordoff.
Behind them, the Eurotech cars of Jeff Smith and Martin Depper got into a battle with Dan Welch, who is having one of his best weekends in the championship.
The Eurotech duo was about to become a trio but as new signing Daniel Lloyd caught them, Jeff Smith made a mistake coming out of Church and spun to the tail of the field.
Gordon Shedden managed the opposite of Jeff Smith as he took his works Honda from the back up to fifth place. As the race entered it’s second half, Jordan made a move on Morgan to take the lead and further back Shedden managed to pass both Goff and Tordoff to move up to fourth.
With the WSR duo in fifth and sixth, their team mate passed Morgan to demote him to third. Daniel Lloyd had been following team mate Martin Depper when Depper’s car slowed after suffering a puncture and had to pull into the pits. This gave Lloyd seventh overall and the win in the Jack Sears trophy for Rookie driver.
Mat Jackson was another driver to put in a great recovery drive after starting in twenty first, he fought his way up to eighth.
Daniel Welch had ultimately lost out to the Eurotech duo and eventually fell to ninth. This was still a great result for a team which had been a constant tail ender last season. It was made even better when ninth was drawn by Andy Priaulx in the draw to decide race three pole, Welch’s first ever in the BTCC.
Rob Austin took tenth for Handy ahead of Matt Neal and Josh Cook. Matt Neal had got into a rather public row with the MG duo after the race one contest but having had a chance to see the accident he conceded that it wasn’t their fault. Matt Simpson scored points again in thirteenth with Michael Epps again scoring points for RCIB Insurance racing in fourteenth.
Ashley Sutton scored the final point in fifthteenth, another driver recovering from a low grid slot caused by the race one shunt.
Full results are on TSL timing
Rob Collard currently leads the championship from Shedden, Goff, Neal and Morgan. After Subarus withdrawl, Turkington and Plato are now looking well out of contention. By Marc Waller
