A sensational last corner victory was sealed by Gordon Shedden to win the third and final British Touring Car Championship race at Donington in a final lap thriller.
The win was the first for the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Tourer in just its sixth BTCC race, Shedden beating Turkington with a bold move around the outside of the eBay Motors BMW as the pair dueled to the flag in a race reminiscent of Turkington’s battle with Fabrizio Giovanardi in 2006.
The race was headed by the fast-starting pole-sitter Turkington since the lights went out, extending a lead of up to five seconds at one point as the battle for second raged behind.
Andrew Jordan suffered a big sideways moment at the opening corner of the race that left him playing catch-up for the race’s majority, but the safety was soon deployed thanks to an incident behind involving the Chevrolet Cruze of Aiden Moffat and the Quantel Bifold Racing MG of Marc Hynes.
Jason Plato was the beneficiary of the antics involving Jordan, and quickly moved ahead of Matt Neal for second place with a dive inside the Honda at Redgate.
The MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save BTCC Team driver then began to slip backwards, as did his team-mate Sam Tordoff who fell to 16th place in a more troublesome race for the dominant winners of the first pair of encounters.
Shedden took Mat Jackson‘s rapid Motorbase Ford Focus for fourth place before quickly passing his team-mate Neal for third, the pair chasing Plato.
Shedden made the move on Plato at the final chicane, the MG man falling foul to Neal’s Honda also at Old Hairpin. Plato then lost out to Jackson’s Ford at the chicane, but made the charging Jordan work harder for fifth place, the Pirtek Racing man then making the move stick at the last corner once again.
Turkington entered the final lap having had his lead dismantled by the charging Shedden, setting up a last-lap showdown for race three honours. Turkington firmly fended off the Honda at McCleans, and forced Shedden to the outside again at the final corner.
The Scot went around the outside of the Northern Irishman, and both skittered through the gravel as Turkington fought to hang on, Shedden emerging from the other side ahead to take his first win of the 2014 season and become the fifth winner in six races.
Neal completed the podium ahead of Jackson and Jordan, while Plato finished sixth on the road, Rob Collard next up after charging through the pack from 28th on the grid to seventh in one of the drives of the day.
Nick Foster made sure all three WSR BMWs were in the top eight, Alain Menu and Adam Morgan rounding out the top 10.
The first lap also saw a separate incident involving three cars at the chicane, Fabrizio Giovanardi tagging the back of Aron Smith which sent the BMR Racing Volkswagen into the side of Tom Ingram, the latter also involved in a tangle with Rob Austin‘s Audi at Redgate later in proceedings.
The result sees Jordan and Plato leave Donington level on 87 points, Shedden a mere single point further back in third while Turkington lies just three from the series lead heading to Thruxton on 3/4 May.
