Gordon Shedden extended his championship lead further with victory in the second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Rockingham, Josh Cook starring with a maiden podium.
The Honda Yuasa Racing man, who started from pole position having claimed the quickest lap during race one of the day at the Corby circuit, led from the moment the lights went out on his way to claiming a fourth win of the 2015 season.
A great move around the outside at Deene hairpin for the first time by Mat Jackson moved the race one winner up to second around Adam Morgan‘s Mercedes, Shedden meanwhile storming clear for a 2.7s victory to extend his championship lead of seven points even further over Matt Neal.
While Jackson held on to a solid second spot, the real story behind was a maiden podium for Power Maxed Racing and Cook, the rookie having started 14th on the grid.
Cook stormed up into the top seven in the opening laps of the race, choosing Deene hairpin as his prime overtaking spot by first dispatching Rob Austin for sixth, then Colin Turkington‘s Team BMR Volkswagen CC for fifth later in the race on lap eight.
Cook’s charge then took him past Jack Goff at Yentwood with a neat move, before his first podium was sealed with a bold move into the final chicane on the last lap around the outside of Morgan’s Mercedes under braking.
Fifth went to Neal’s Honda, Austin next up ahead of a charging Jason Plato, who completed a surge from 12th up to seventh place with a double overtake on Turkington and Sam Tordoff into Deene late on.
Turkington, Goff and Tom Ingram rounded out the top 10, Dave Newsham taken off at Deene after contact with Nick Foster while Hunter Abbott and Rob Collard also came to grief exiting Pif Paf.
Ingram will start on pole position for the final race of the day, the top 10 reversed for race three.
Race three gets underway at 16:40, and you can keep up with the action here at www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk, or via Twitter at @tcfBTCC.
