Shedden edges Collard in Croft opener

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Sun 20th June 2010 Gordon Shedden held off a late charge from Rob Collard to win the first race at Croft this afternoon.

Shedden’s first win of the year came from second on the grid. The Honda Racing Team driver jumped ahead of polesitter Tom Chilton at the start of the race and then led comfortably until the last couple of laps when the challenge from Collard emerged.

Shedden led from Chilton through Clervaux for the first time, with Collard in third and Alex MacDowall in fourth. The Silverline Chevrolet driver lost the place on lap three, when Tom Onslow-Cole passed on the inside at Clervaux.

David Pinkney was an early casualty as he was forced to crawl back to the pits after a huge burst of smoke from his Vectra’s engine.

Further down the order, Paul O’Neill started to make progress from his ninth position on the grid. He was soon on the back of Matt Neal’s Civic, which is where he spent much of the rest of the race.

Contact between Andrew Jordan and Mat Jackson between Clervaux and Hawthorn saw them both drop down the order, while Tom Onslow-Cole lost several places when his Team Aon Ford Focus momentarily slowed coming out of the hairpin on lap six.

At the front, Rob Collard passed Tom Chilton for second just after mid-distance. It was the start of Chilton’s demise as he begane to lap significantly slower than the other front-runners, eventually pitting with a front-left puncture. Alex MacDowall was another loser in the second half of the race, dropping from fourth, eventually finishing down in 13th.

Championship contenders Jason Plato and Matt Neal progressed through the pack together, eventually making it to third and fourth respectively.

Heading onto the final lap of the race, Gordon Shedden’s lead had disappeared and Rob Collard was right on his tail. By the time the pair entered the Complex for the last time, the WSR BMW was almost attached to the rear of the Civic. Shedden stuck tight to the hairpin as Collard tried to accelerate past heading onto the start-finish straight. Collard was on the outside and found himself squeezed on to the grass, which was just enough to prevent him from snatching the win from Shedden.

In the end, Shedden won the race by 0.035 seconds, ahead of Collard. Jason Plato claimed third, with Matt Neal fourth and Paul O’Neill fifth. The Triple Eight Vectra pairing of James Nash and Daniel Lloyd finished sixth and seventh respectively – the latter impressing on his BTCC debut. Tom Onslow-Cole, Mat Jackson and Andrew Jordan rounded out the top ten.

Click here to view the full result