Rob Collard wins twice red-flag interrupted Thruxton race two

BMW’s Rob Collard won a heavily interrupted second British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton, which featured two red-flag stoppages due to accidents.

At the first start it was the pair of factory Hondas of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden who led the way, before a big accident further behind brought out the red flags.

The first red-flag incident was between MG’s Daniel Lloyd, Árón Taylor-Smith and Power Maxed Racing’s Senna Proctor. Approaching the high-speed Church corner, Proctor and Taylor-Smith appeared to make contact, pitching the Vauxhall into the rear quarter of Lloyd’s MG.

Lloyd went backwards into the new barrier on the exit of the corner at high-speed, launching his car into the air, although it didn’t roll. The damage to the barrier and subsequent repairs brought out the red flags for around half an hour, whilst Taylor-Smith and Proctor returned to the pits with more superficial damage. Lloyd’s MG suffered extensive damage and is unlikely to reappear in race three.

When the race eventually resumed, it was BMW’s Collard who got the best start, powering through the pack from sixth on the re-formed grid to be in second by the end of the lap, having made a daring pass on the Honda of Shedden into the final chicane.

Second then became first on the second lap when the leading Honda of Neal pulled into the pits with a trip-out on his Civic’s power steering system.

Collard then held the lead for the next five laps, before the race was stopped again when Motorbase Performance’s Martin Depper had a high-speed spin into the barriers at Village bend, losing a wheel in the process and causing the premature end to the race.

That left Shedden to take second, ahead of the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota of Tom Ingram in third, who had muscled past Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff for the position on lap four.

Goff finished fourth, ahead of Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin in fifth and the second factory BMW of Colin Turkington in sixth, who had a lap earlier lost out to Austin.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan was seventh, ahead of the leading Subaru of Ash Sutton in eighth, who had moved into the position past the second Ciceley Mercedes of Aiden Moffat when the two team-mates battled at the complex on what turned out to be the last lap of the race.

Moffat and Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith completed the top ten, ahead of Matt Simpson in 11^th and Tom Chilton in 12^th.

BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan was the biggest improver during the race, finishing in 14^th place after starting down in 28^th as a result of his race one spin.

Neal ended up down in 29t position after rejoining the race, although the Honda driver did pick up a point for the fastest lap when he returned in clear air.

Collard’s win elevates him to third overall in the championship standings on 94 points, seven behind Shedden and 20 behind leader Ingram.

The final race of the day is scheduled to take place at 17:17 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME/GAP	BEST	GD
1	5	M	Rob COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	6	7:56.984	1:17.789	10
2	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	6	0.212	1:17.811	2
3	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	6	0.507	1:18.015	4
4	31		Jack GOFF		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	6	1.575	1:18.520	3
5	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	6	2.791	1:18.150	9
6	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	6	2.971	1:18.108	7
7	33		Adam MORGAN		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	6	3.327	1:18.115	5
8	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	6	4.143	1:18.324	6
9	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	6	5.152	1:18.307	12
10	55		Jeff SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	6	5.623	1:18.384	11
11	303	M	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	6	6.255	1:18.462	13
12	2	M	Tom CHILTON		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	6.77	1:18.151	14
13	17		David NEWSHAM		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	6	7.12	1:18.296	15
14	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	6	7.64	1:18.650	28
15	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	6	8.319	1:18.824	19
16	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmDtuning.com with CobraExhausts	Audi S3	6	9.591	1:18.896	18
17	300		Luke DAVENPORT		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	6	9.867	1:18.580	17
18	12		Mike EPPS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	6	10.554	1:18.422	25
19	61		Will BURNS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	6	11.617	1:19.066	26
20	3		Mat JACKSON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	6	11.83	1:18.612	8
21	24		Jake HILL		TAG Racing	Volkswagen CC	6	12.389	1:18.446	32
22	7		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	6	13.039	1:18.603	22
23	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	14.693	1:18.266	16
24	10		Ant WHORTON-EALES		AmDtuning.com with CobraExhausts	Audi S3	6	16.431	1:18.851	30
25	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	6	18.742	1:19.556	23
26	28	M	Josh PRICE		BMR Racing Academy	Subaru Levorg GT	6	19.115	1:19.193	29
27	40	M	Árón SMITH		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	6	20.19	1:19.161	20
28	20	M	James COLE		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	6	21.437	1:19.529	27
29	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	6	39.987	1:17.444	1
R	30		Martin DEPPER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	5	1 Lap	1:18.569	24
R	66		Josh COOK		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	5	1 Lap	1:18.108	31
NS	23	M	Daniel LLOYD		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	–	DNS	N/A	21

Complete race results