Shedden storms to Thruxton race two victory

Victory in the second race at a wet Thruxton circuit went to Gordon Shedden, the Honda driver showing electric pace as he fought his way to the front from sixth place.

The race started under safety car conditions due to the persistent weather, and it was race one winner Mat Jackson that got a great jump to build an early lead.

Shedden then began his charge by passing Rob Collard with a better run out of Church on the BMW driver, and set about chasing the MG of Jason Plato for third.

The Scot then threw his Honda up the inside of Plato under braking for the Complex on lap five, and his pace was clear to see as he closed a two second gap to Dave Newsham to nothing in three corners before making the move at the final chicane.

It then took Shedden four more laps to trim Jackson’s healthy lead to a car’s length, and he took the lead with another swift piece of late braking into the Complex.

Although quick in a straight line, the S2000 Ford Focus did not have the pace to match newer Honda and MG NGTC models in the slippery conditions and Jackson was soon pushed to third when Plato repeated the move at the Complex.

Shedden cruised home to a comfortable third win of the season ahead of Plato, but Jackson was forced to defend his podium finish hard on the last lap from a charging Frank Wrathall.

“The balance in this little Honda Civic is fantastic,” said Shedden afterwards. “Round the corners it’s amazing.

“In these conditions it’s all about feel and a little bit of confidence in the car, and I’ve got a lots of confidence in it.”

Fifth place went to the second Dynamics Honda of reigning champion Matt Neal, who completed his progress with a move on Newsham into the final chicane on the penultimate lap.

Collard had a quiet race to finish seventh ahead of Aron Smith, while there was a great battle for the rest of the top 10 positions. Tom Onslow-Cole had lead the scrap but came under intense pressure from Lea Wood, impressing again in the BINZ Racing Vauxhall Vectra.

Wood attacked the BMW into the chicane, but lost momentum heading into the Complex which allowed Tony Gilham to go around the outside. The pair then forced their way past Onslow-Cole, and were joined by a recovering Andrew Jordan.

Jordan almost beat Gilham to the flag for ninth but just missed out, and that proved to be the battle for the reverse-grid race pole position as the top nine will be reversed.

Chris James had been on the back of the battle early on, but crashed his Vectra at Complex.

Race two results:

1.  Gordon Shedden   Dynamics Honda         1m21.298s
2.  Jason Plato      Triple 8 MG             + 3.147s
3.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford          + 6.345s
4.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota          + 6.585s
5.  Matt Neal        Dynamics Honda          + 9.858s
6.  Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall            + 15.085s
7.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW                + 23.423s
8.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford         + 26.406s
9.  Tony Gilham      Gilham Honda           + 29.130s
10.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda         + 29.187s
11.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda         + 35.190s
12.  Lea Wood         Wood Vauxhall          + 35.390s
13.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW                + 37.429s
14.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW                + 48.032s
15.  Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen         + 58.937s
16.  Andy Neate       Triple 8 MG          + 1m17.297s
17.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford       + 1m17.512s
18.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi              + 1 lap
19.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota        + 1 lap
DNF     Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota        12 laps
DNF     Chris James      ES Vauxhall               6 laps

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