Darren Turner made it two wins from two races at Knockhill with a lights-to-flag victory in round 26 of the championship. In the battle for the championship, Fabrizio Giovanardi took four points out of Jason Plato’s lead after fending off an almost race-long challenge from Team Halfords’ Gordon Shedden.

The start of the race saw Giovanardi pass Mike Jordan and Adam Jones to go into the first corner in fourth position, just behind Plato. The ballast-free Vectra was on the pace extremely quickly and he wasted little time in looking for a way past his rival. An attempt by the Italian at Crlube corner on lap four saw him lose time to Adam Jones in fifth, but it was merely a temporary blip as he was soon back on the tail of Plato.

Before long. Giovanardi and Plato had a flying Scotsman behind them, with Gordon Shedden climbing up to fifth position after starting at the back of the grid. A gentle tap from Shedden on lap nine put Giovanardi sideways at the Scotsman corner, but his immaculate car control kept the Vectra on the track. It did nothing to slow down the Vauxhall driver and two laps later he found a Vectra-sized gap at the chicane to go past Plato. Shedden made the same move on Plato on the following lap

There were still 12 laps remaining at this point and for Giovanardi, much of that time was spent defending from Shedden. With Plato just behind the Honda, any slip-up could have disastrous consequences for the VX Racing driver’s championship chances. However, Giovanardi put on a masterful display of touring car driving to keep Shedden behind him, despite the Civic seeming to have the edge in terms of outright pace.

Following the race, Giovanardi said, “That was really hard work. It was tough to keep him behind me because he was faster, but I needed to him between me and Jason for the championship. It’s very good for points for the championship.”

Darren Turner’s race lead was threatened during the closing laps of the race by Colin Turkington, but the Team RAC driver was not quite close enough on the final lap to make a real challenge for the lead. Turner took the chequered flag just over half a second ahead of Turkington. Giovanardi filled the final podium position, ahead of Shedden and Plato. Matt Neal closed on Plato in the closing stages, but seemed content to finish sixth. Adam Jones was seventh for Team Air Cool. Mike Jordan, Gavin Smith and Mat Jackson completed the top ten.