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British Touring Car Championship
Knockhill - Race 3 Report - 25/8/13

By MJP Media | 25 August 2013

Andrew Jordan dominates the 3rd race from Knockhill as Gordon Shedden retires but retains 3rd place in the Drivers' Championship following Turkington's exclusion from the race.

Andrew Jordan lifts the winner's trophy for race 3

Following the reverse grid draw after race two, the final race of the day from Knockhill started with the Honda Civics of Andrew Jordan for Pirtek Racing and Matt Neal for Honda Yuasa Racing on the front row of the grid. On row 2 was Rob Collard in the eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport and defending BTCC champion Gordon Shedden in the other Honda Yuasa Racing Civic. Rob Austin's Audi A4 and Colin Turkington's BMW 125i M Sport started on the 3rd row for WIX Racing and eBay Motors respectively.

Andrew Jordan made the most of his pole position and extended an early lead. Behind him, Matt Neal lost out on the first lap to the fast-starting Rob Collard. As Turkington pulled away, Neal tried hard to regain 2nd place but Collard succeeded in keeping the former BTCC champion behind him. Meanwhile, Colin Turkington had made up 2 places to be running 4th by the end of lap 3. Gordon Shedden lost out in the early stages, dropping to 6th place from 4th on the grid.

Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic

A period under the safety car allowed the field to bunch up and Colin Turkington to lose the advantage he had built, however when racing resumed he soon re-established a commanding lead over the battle for 2nd place between Rob Collard and Matt Neal. The race settled down and the front-runners held their positions as Gordon Shedden moved up to 5th place by passing Rob Austin.

In a race of high attrition which saw 9 retirements including Sam Tordoff's MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 which failed to make the start, the Toyota Avensis' of Frank Wrathall and Dave Newsham together with the Volkswagen Passat CC of Tom Onslow-Cole, the bumper crowd were in for a massive disappointment when home favourite Gordon Shedden retired his Honda Yuasa Racing Civic on lap 17.

eBay Motors drivers Rob Collard and Colin Turkington

Rob Collard managed to hold on to 2nd place until lap 19 when he succumbed to the challenge from Matt Neal and ended the race in 3rd place behind race winner Andrew Jordan and 2nd placed Neal. Colin Turkington finished 4th with Rob Austin 5th and Jason Plato completing the top 6. This result ensured that both eBay Motors and Honda Yuasa Racing had drivers on the podium in all three races.

As the teams prepared to leave the Knockhill circuit, news broke that Colin Turkington had been excluded from the results of the 3rd race for running too much turbo-boost on his BMW. Matt Neal now leads the Drivers' Championship on 293 points with Andrew Jordan 2nd on 287 and Gordon Shedden 3rd on 266 with Turkington only 3 points behind on 263. The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship now heads to the Rockingham circuit near Corby in Northamptonshire on the 14th and 15th of September for the next rounds of the 2013 season.

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