Shedden leads Honda one-two in second race as Plato crashes out

Gordon Shedden made it five different winners from five races in 2012, leading a Honda one-two while championship leader Jason Plato crashed out after a collision with Rob Collard.

Race one winner Mat Jackson took the lead with another great start, holding off Shedden into the first corner. Behind them, Matt Neal lost third place to Plato two corners later when his MG got a much better drive out of Old Hairpin for the first time.

His next target Shedden then almost lost control heading into Mcleans, before Neal got a great run out of Coppice to draw back alongside Plato into the chicane.

Plato tangled with Collard in race two and ended up 17th

As the Honda driver outbraked his rival, the fast-starting Rob Collard stuck his BMW into the gap and as the pair refused to give an inch, Plato’s MG wrapped itself around the front of the WSR car and clattered into the tyre barriers, Collard spinning across the track also.

The safety car came out and destroyed Jackson’s 2.3s lead, Plato returning after repairs to the rear of his car.

Jackson led the Hondas away on the restart, but on lap five Shedden got a great drive of Coppice to pull past the Ford driver, after which the Scot began to edge out an advantage.

The Honda pair were clearly the fastest cars from then on, and as spots of rain began to fall, Neal got a run on Jackson heading out of Mcleans and made the move stick at Coppice for second.

After his dreadful luck at Brands Hatch, Shedden took his first win of the season ahead of team-mate Neal making it a one-two for reigning champions Honda Racing, the pair joined by Jackson on the podium.

“Brands Hatch couldn’t have been worse, but we’ve got a really good handling car and round here it’s been awesome all day,” said Shedden.

“I kept expecting the onslaught to come but it ended up being pretty consistent. Happy days.”

Behind them, Dave Newsham won a great scrap for fourth place. Tom Onslow-Cole led the battle but was under attack from the Honda of Andrew Jordan, who got a cutback coming out of Old Hairpin.

However as he tried to complete the move a corner later, Newsham tried to outbrake the BMW driver as well and instead nudged Jordan into slide that dropped him to sixth, while ES Racing’s Newsham took fourth.

The other Eurotech Honda of Jeff Smith was sixth and will start from pole for the reverse grid race, while an impressive drive from Tony Gilham saw him finish seventh in the 2011-specification S2000 Honda Civic ahead of Collard, who won a great dice with the Ford of Aron Smith.

Another dramatic incident occured when Andy Neate edged Chris James’s ES Racing Vectra wide at Mcleans before Liam Griffin swiped across into the Vectra and sent the pair into the barriers. Despite seemingly at fault, Griffin marched over to James’ car and began remonstrating aggressively to him.

Race two results:

1.  Gordon Shedden   Honda              20m55.258s
2.  Matt Neal        Honda                + 1.241s
3.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford       + 2.685s
4.  Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall          + 3.308s
5.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda       + 8.914s
6.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda      + 17.267s
7.  Tony Gilham      Gilham Honda        + 17.854s
8.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW             + 19.768s
9.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford      + 19.816s
10.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW             + 20.650s
11.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW             + 20.882s
12.  Andy Neate       MG                  + 23.396s
13.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota   + 24.294s
14.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota      + 28.373s
15.  Lea Wood         Wood Vauxhall       + 32.908s
16.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota     + 1 lap
NC        Jason Plato      MG                    13 laps
DNF     Chris James      ES Vauxhall           11 laps
DNF     Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford        11 laps
DNF     Daniel Welch     Welch Proton           5 laps

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