Round 2: Donington – Shedden steals race 3 win at final corner
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Round two is underway as first practice has taken place and Aron Smith shocked by going quickest by nearly two tenths from Gordon Shedden. Not only that but Smith’s time was quicker than the 2013 time set by Shedden himself. Colin Turkington and Matt Neal were third and fourth with BTCC rookie Marc Hynes in fifth. Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff were sixth and seventh for MG with Jack Goff another surprise in eighth. Alain Menu couldn’t match teammate Smith down in ninth and Adam Morgan rounded out the top ten in his Mercedes. Reigning Champion Andrew Jordan could only manage 12th fastest while ex-Champion Fabrizio Giovanardo struggled again down in sixteenth, although he was at least quicker than teammate Mat Jackson this time.
Sam Tordoff went even quicker in FP2 than Aron Smith managed in FP1, breaking into the 1:09.6’s. Smith managed a 1:09.8 and his teammate Alain Menu was third with a 1:10.0.
Qualifying promises to be a close fight between a number of drivers. Catch it live on ITV5 (ITV website) at 3:40pm!
Jason Plato has taken pole position for the second round of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park. An early lap of 1:09.460 was never bettered, and in fact the closest driver – Gordon Shedden – was still over a tenth of a second off. Sam Tordoff lines up third after going fastest in FP2 with Colin Turkington fourth and Aron Smith – who topped FP1 – fifth ahead of teammate Alain Menu.
Andrew Jordan – carrying the full 45 kilo’s of ballast – could only manage seventh with Jack Goff a surprise eighth and fellow Championship contender Matt Neal down in ninth with 36 kilo’s of ballast. Marc Hynes rounded out the top ten in the third MG ahead of ex-Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi, who suffered a spin.
Adam Morgan was sitting fifth in his WIX Racing Mercedes but with eight minutes to go he failed a ride height check and has all his times disallowed. The team set about correcting the issue but Morgan could only manage seventeenth in the last three minutes he got on track, after making a mistake at turn one on his final lap.
1. Jason Plato (MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save – MG6 GT) – 1:09.460
2. Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa Racing – Honda Civic Tourer) – 1:09.591
3. Sam Tordoff (MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save – MG6 GT) – 1:09.696
4. Colin Turkington (eBay Motors – BMW 125i M Sport) – 1:09.746
5. Aron Smith (CHROME Edition Restart Racing – Volkswagen CC) – 1:09.819
6. Alain Menu (CHROME Edition Restart Racing – Volkswagen CC) – 1:09.864
7. Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing – Honda Civic) – 1:09.943
8. Jack Goff (RCIB Insurance Racing – Vauxhall Insignia) – 1:09.996
9. Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing – Honda Civic Tourer) – 1:10.043
10. Marc Hynes (Quantel Bifold Racing – MG6 GT) – 1:10.045
11. Fabrizio Giovanardi (Airwaves Racing – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 1:10.145
12. Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis) – 1:10.248
13. Rob Collard (eBay Motors – BMW 125i M Sport) – 1:10.335
14. Mat Jackson (Airwaves Racing – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 1:10.341
15. Nick Foster (eBay Motors – BMW 125i M Sport) – 1:10.425
16. Rob Austin (Exocet Racing – Audi A4) – 1:10.457
17. Adam Morgan (WIX Racing – Mercedes-Benz A-Class) – 1:10.556
18. Martin Depper (Pirtek Racing – Honda Civic) – 1:10.623
19. Dave Newsham (AmD Tuning.com – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 1:10.639
20. Warren Scott (CHROME Edition Restart Racing – Vauxhall Insignia) – 1:10.673
21. Glynn Geddie (United Autosports – Toyota Avensis) – 1:10.746
22. Hunter Abbott (AlcoSense Breathalysers Racing – Audi A4) – 1:10.897
23. Lea Wood (Houseman Racing – Toyota Avensis) – 1:11.255
24. Aiden Moffat (Laser Tools Racing – Chevrolet Cruze 4dr) – 1:11.404
25. James Cole (United Autosports – Toyota Avensis) – 1:11.472
26. Jack Clarke (Crabbie’s Racing – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 1:11.556
27. Robb Holland (Rotek Racing – Audi S3 Saloon) – 1:11.586
28. Ollie Jackson (STP Racing with Sopp & Sopp – Proton Persona) – 1:11.775
29. Simon Belcher (Handy Motorsport – Toyota Avensis) – 1:12.068
30. Chris Stockton (Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze 5dr) – 1:12.430
31. Dan Welch (STP Racing with Sopp & Sopp – Proton Persona) – 1:14.715I was at the track this morning so I’m not up to speed on everything that has been happening. Good to see the VWs up there but the problems for Motorbase continue. There isn’t really an incompetent driver until the second half of the grid so the races tomorrow should be good.
@robk23 – I don’t know. Foster’s 15th, which is technically the front half of the grid :P
@bradley13 Although to be fair, if he can get his car to 15th ahead of Austin and others then I’m not sure he is incompetent, especially when he got a 5th place last round and is 9th overall!
I think it’s clear Austin’s Audi is nowhere near as good as that BMW here. But anyway, we’ve discussed this on Facebook so I shan’t say anymore here :-P
There was certainly more racing in that first race than the first race of the World Team-orders Citroen Championship which followed straight after. It seems MG have sorted much of their wet weather problems and that everyone else seemed to be struggling a bit.
Jason Plato easily won race one ahead of teammate Sam Tordoff as the pair beat the MG field by some margin. A greasey drying track led drivers to use tye Wet tyre but by the end they were wishing they’d used the slicks. Andrew Jordan recovered to third from qualifying seventh.
Race two was won by Sam Tordoff after he got a better start than teammate Jason Plato and held him back until the end. Tordoff dealt with pressure from Plato brilliantly and also had to deal with two and half safety car restarts in an extended 19 lap race.
Alain Menu was tagged early on and ended up spinning across the track and beaching it in a gravel trap. Miraculously everyone missed him but the Safety Car was called to remove the stricken Passat.
Upon the restart Rob Austin and Chris Stockton spun off on the exit of turn one and James Cole and Robb Holland were involved in a tangle that resulted in a collision and heavy impacts with the wall for both. The entire right-hand side of Cole’s car was destroyed – twisting the shell – while Holland’s had lost a considerable amount of the front end.
This brought the Safety Car out again but just as the restart was about to take place Ollie Jackson’s Proton stopped in the middle of the final chicane, causing slight confusion and leading to another safety car lap. Thankfully everyone had somehow been made aware of the incident and no-one arrived too quickly at the chicane.
When the race eventually restarted there were battles throughout the field but Tordoff held on to win ahead of Plato and Gordon Shedden.
An image of James Cole’s wrecked car:
http://www.btcccrazy.co.uk/btcc/sam-tordoff-turns-the-tables-on-plato-in-chaotic-second-race/attachment/blq17q-cqaauakf/That’s some big damage to that Toyota, so that will be a new shell then and indeed that has just been confirmed on TV. Drivecool everybody…
Hey Bradley, I appreciate how much enthusiasm you’re showing for the BTCC and the WRC on this forum, it’s really cool!
I was wondering if it would be OK if you wouldn’t mind not updating the thread titles with the latest updates? It’s just that tend to miss other series like the WRC and BTCC until after they’ve taken place because I watch the highlights on BT Sport or on ITV Player due to doing other things at weekends and I tend to come on the forum to discuss things and see the results of events I’m going to watch later in some of the thread titles! :P
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