Gordon Shedden took the lead of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship with his win in race two at Snetterton. Shedden led every lap of the race after taking the lead at the second corner. James Nash finished in second after following Shedden through past Jason Plato at the same corner, whilst Plato himself took third.
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The race was more or less decided at the Montreal hairpin on the second lap. As the queue of cars comprising Plato, Alex MacDowall, Shedden, Nash and Frank Wrathall braked into the corner contact was made, ultimately pushing those at the front wide. Shedden and Nash were able to squeeze through into first and second, whilst Wrathall took third.
Following this incident the two works Chevrolet’s dropped down to fourth and fifth, although they eventually finished in third and fourth after benefiting from the retirement of Wrathall. The Toyota driver had been running in third for the first 9 laps when he suddenly slowed and pulled off the circuit with overheating problems.
Once again there was an intense scrap for position between Paul O’Neill and Mat Jackson. Mid-way through the race Jackson had attempted to pass Tom Onslow-Cole into the bomb hole – a pass which didn’t work out for the Airwaves driver. Contact was made and Onslow-Cole lost position to Matt Neal, whilst Jackson lost two places. O’Neill had snuck past Jackson at Coram in the process and he held on to finish in fifth, with Jackson once again forced to settle for sixth.
Matt Neal had been running in seventh, having started 18th, when on lap 6 he pulled into the pitlane with a suspected slow puncture. The ensuing time loss meant that he could finish no higher than 17th to further add to his miserable weekend so far.
David Newsham took seventh position – his strongest result in the BTCC so far – with Onslow-Cole following in eighth as the top Team Aon car.
Finishing in ninth was Andrew Jordan, with Rob Collard rounding out the top ten.
The fastest lap of the race went to Rob Austin in the NGTC Audi A4. Whilst Austin has struggled this weekend with his race consistency it demonstrates the potential of the package and he picks up his first, albeit bonus, point in the process.
The final race of the day takes place at 17:05 GMT.