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British Touring Car Championship
Donington Park - Race 1 Report - 21/4/13

By MJP Media | 21 April 2013

Gordon Shedden wins his first BTCC race of the year at Donington Park. Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal make it at Honda Civic 1-2-3.

Gordon Shedden celebrates his first win of the season

Following an exciting qualifying session on Saturday, defending champion Gordon Shedden started the first race of the day at Donington Park in pole position for Honda Yuasa Racing. Joining Shedden's Honda Civic on the front row of the grid was the Dynojet Toyota Avensis of Frank Wrathall with the Honda Civics of Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal on row two for Pirtek Racing and Honda Yuasa Racing respectively.

Off the line, Gordon Shedden led from start to finish to record his first win of the 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. From 2nd on the grid, Frank Wrathall lost places and was running 4th at the end of lap 1, having been passed by the Honda Civics of Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal. He lost another place on lap 2 to the MG KX Momentum MG6 of Jason Plato.

Gordon Shedden under pressure from Andrew Jordan

As the race progressed, Shedden and Jordan extended a slight lead over the rest of rest of the field and despite constant pressure from Jordan, held on to 1st place. Behind the leaders, Matt Neal and Jason Plato were having their own battle with Neal holding on to 3rd place.

With interest in how the new Dunlop soft tyres would perform in warmer conditions, there appeared to be no obvious advantage to those cars electing to use the tyres in this race. Indeed, the tyres on Will Bratt's WIX Racing Audi A4 degraded mid-way through the race, causing him to slip from 18th to 25th place.

Andrew Jordan on his way to another podium finish

The race ended with a victory for Gordon Shedden with Andrew Jordan 2nd and Matt Neal 3rd. Jason Plato finished 4th with Adam Morgan 5th for Ciceley Racing and Sam Tordoff completing the top 6. James Kaye won the Jack Sears Cup for S2000 specification cars.

The 2nd race from Donington Park will see milestones for two of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship's most successful drivers as arch rivals Jason Plato and Matt Neal compete in their 400th and 500th BTCC races respectively. These records are rare and for them both to occur in the same race adds extra excitement to the occasion.

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