Neal wins ahead of charging Shedden

Honda salvaged a difficult opening weekend to its 2013 British Touring Car campaign with a one-two in the reversed-grid race three.

Despite both starting on the new soft tyre, which was expected to degrade, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden came through to make amends for their problems earlier in the meeting.

Neal’s Civic got away well from row two, crucially jumping the harder tyre-shod cars of Adam Morgan (Ciceley Toyota) and a slow-starting Sam Tordoff (works MG) to run second behind Mat Jackson’s Motorbase Ford Focus.

Before he could make any further progress the safety car was brought out early when Dave Newsham lost his Speedworks Toyota Avensis at Paddock and clipped the unfortunate Rob Austin, causing the Audi to crash into the barriers. Both drivers escaped unharmed.

On the first lap of the restart Jackson ran wide at Druids and then appeared to hesitate, allowing Neal, Morgan and Jason Plato’s MG to go by.

While Neal edged clear, Shedden was charging from the back after being excluded from race two.

The reigning champion forced his way by Jeff Smith (Eurotech Civic) just before half-distance to take sixth and soon closed on the pack fight for third, which was being slowed as Plato’s soft rubber went off.

Tordoff and Shedden both overcame Andrew Jordan’s Eurotech Honda and Plato, and then closed on Morgan.

With two laps to go Tordoff lunged Morgan at Clearways, allowing Shedden to get a run on both to snatch second.

He then rapidly closed on Neal and finished almost side-by-side with his triple champion team-mate.

Tordoff finished as the top hard-tyred runner in third, followed by Morgan, Plato and Jordan.

After an early off at the first corner, Colin Turkington again put on a recovery drive to come home ninth.

Having tracked David Nye (Welch Focus) for much of the race, Lea Wood’s Vauxhall Vectra pounced in the closing stages to top the S2000 class and become the third different Jack Sears Trophy winner of the weekend.

Race 3 – 27 laps:
 
Pos  Driver            Team/Car                   Time/Gap
  1.  Matt Neal         Honda                    25m14.772s
  2.  Gordon Shedden    Honda                      + 0.083s
  3.  Sam Tordoff       MG                         + 1.216s
  4.  Adam Morgan       Ciceley Toyota             + 2.171s
  5.  Jason Plato       MG                         + 3.651s
  6.  Andrew Jordan     Eurotech Honda             + 4.727s
  7.  Jeff Smith        Eurotech Honda             + 6.026s
  8.  Frank Wrathall    Dynojet Toyota             + 6.430s
  9.  Colin Turkington  WSR BMW                    + 9.508s
 10.  Mat Jackson       Motorbase Ford            + 10.133s
 11.  Aron Smith        Motorbase Ford            + 10.611s
 12.  Daniel Welch      Welch Proton              + 10.994s
 13.  Nick Foster       WSR BMW                   + 19.150s
 14.  Will Bratt        Austin Audi               + 25.176s
 15.  Lea Wood          Wood Vauxhall*            + 27.179s
 16.  Liam Griffin      Motorbase Ford*           + 28.485s
 17.  Tom Onslow-Cole   HARD VW                   + 29.483s
 18.  David Nye         Welch Ford*               + 30.192s
 19.  Joe Girling       Finesse Chevrolet*        + 46.370s
 
Retirements:
 
     Rob Collard       WSR BMW                      5 laps
      Warren Scott      BMR SEAT*                    2 laps
      Dave Newsham      Speedworks Toyota             1 lap
      Rob Austin        Austin Audi                   1 lap
      James Cole        HARD Vauxhall                0 laps
 
Not classified:
 
     Jack Goff         HARD Vauxhall               20 laps
 
* S2000
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/touring-cars/btcc/neal-wins-ahead-of-charging-shedden

Kyle Thomas Busch Jeffrey Tyler Burton Richard Allen Craven Kerry Dale Earnhardt Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr