Gordon Shedden lead Matt Neal (Photo Credit: Jon Hobley)
The second British Touring Car race at Silverstone resulted in a second 1-2 finish for the works Honda team for the day. However, with the order reversed Gordon Shedden was able to take the title fight to final race of the season.
Shedden took the lead on the opening lap, taking advantage of a slow start by pole sitter Matt Neal to lead Tom Onslow–Cole by half a second at the end of the first lap, the Team Aon driver climbed from fourth on the grid past Neal and James Nash.
Onslow-Cole's stint between the two Hondas lasted only four laps before he slid wide at Brooklands, allowing Neal to move into second place unchallenged. The Honda pair were able to drop the chasing Ford, the gap back to Onslow-Cole approaching two seconds before the safety car was sent out after Nick Foster spun at Woodcote and was collected by James Thompson leaving debris across the pit straight.
Shedden was able to get a good restart, immediately establishing a six-tenths of a second lead over Neal behind. Neal was able to edge towards Shedden in the closing laps – later telling The Checkered Flag he would have considered attempting a pass for the lead – but fell short and had to follow Shedden across the line. Neal's points lead is just six points with the final race of the day left to decide the champion.
Tom Onslow-Cole completed the podium, taking his first Independents' race win of the year ahead of Special Tuning Racing's Dave Newsham, who continued almost certainly his best weekend of the year. James Nash, who had held fourth early in the race was punted down to tenth on lap two before struggling to regain ground in the cut-throat midfield battle and finishing 15th.
Andrew Jordan and Tom Boardman finished fifth and sixth. Boardman started the race from 23rd following his race one rear suspension failure, but needed only three laps to break into the top ten and a further eight to put himself into sixth.
Jason Plato was another to fight up through the field after his race one problems, though he made slower progress from 25th on the starting grid. He took tenth place away from Liam Griffin with a move around the outside at Brooklands before benefitting to the tune of two more places when Rob Collard and Daniel Welch. His final move was to pass Tom Chilton's battered Ford for seventh at Copse. The Team Aon man was typical of the midfield battle, carrying damage for nearly the entire race after being tapped sideways at Brooklands on lap one. The same incident ruled Frank Wrathall out of points contention, the passenger side door of the Toyota Avensis needing to be taped close as a result of the damage.
Alex MacDowall lost out to Chilton at the line by just 0.017 seconds and Welch completed the top ten, the latter scoring the first points for the Proton Gen-2 based racer.
Mat Jackson endured another tough race, having to pit with right-front damage at the end of the first lap. He finished 25th – the last classified runner – but again claimed a lonely bonus point for fastest lap.
MacDowall will start the final race of the season from pole position after the random reverse grid draw. Title chasers Neal and Shedden therefore start eighth and ninth respectively, a fact that concerns Neal with the possibility of contact in the fraught midfield looming large.
