Sport   Motorsport   Touring Cars

British Touring Car Championship
Silverstone - Race 3 Report - 29/9/13

By MJP Media | 29 September 2013

Gordon Shedden wins the final race from Silverstone as Andrew Jordan maintains his lead in the championship. Aron Smith gets his best result of the year with 2nd place ahead of Matt Neal.

Gordon Shedden is thankful for his victory in race 3

As the sun continued to beat down on the massive Silverstone crowd, the last race of the day promised thrills and spills galore as the title contenders were all in the top seven places with everything to play for. On the grid there was a near 50/50 split between those cars running with the standard control tyre and those running with the soft option tyre. The top three on the grid: Matt Neal, Colin Turkington and Sam Tordoff were all on the soft tyres with Aron Smith and Andrew Jordan in 4th and 5th on the control tyre. This would prove interesting as the cars which finished 2nd and 3rd in the last race both ran on the soft option tyres.

As the cars fired away from the lights it was Colin Turkington who got the best start in his eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport ahead of Matt Neal, Sam Tordoff, Aron Smith, Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan. Lap 2 saw contact between Matt Neal's Honda Yuasa Racing Civic and Sam Tordoff's MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 which saw the MG driver spinning out and re-joining in 13th place. This allowed Aron Smith in the Airwaves Racing Ford Focus to move up to 2nd, Gordon Shedden to 3rd and Matt Neal to 4th. Andrew Jordan was 5th for Pirtek Racing with Jason Plato 6th.

Aron Smith celebrates with his fiancée Lauren

Lap 7 saw Gordon Shedden up the inside of Aron Smith at Brooklands to take 2nd place however at the end of the lap, Colin Turkington commanded a 1.27 second lead over Shedden with Smith a further 0.32 seconds back. The next few laps were completed in the same order until lap 12 when a loose piece of bodywork on the racing line caused the safety car to be deployed.

After 2 laps under the safety car, Colin Turkington was caught out when racing resumed as both Gordon Shedden and Aron Smith were able to get past him early in the lap, relegating him to 4th ahead of Matt Neal. The train of Turkington, Neal, Andrew Jordan, Mat Jackson and Jason Plato continued to circulate together then on lap 16 Jackson passed Jordon. As the race moved into its final stages, both Matt Neal and Mat Jackson passed Turkington, however later in the lap, Turkington reclaimed one place ahead of Jackson.

Gordon Shedden is elated after his race 3 victory

On lap 22, Colin Turkington spun out with badly damaged rear suspension after a collision, with Gordon Shedden taking the race victory ahead of Aron Smith and Matt Neal 3rd. Mat Jackson was 4th with Andrew Jordan 5th and Dave Newsham a creditable 6th. Andrew Jordan now leads the championship on 378 points with Matt Neal 2nd on 344, Gordon Shedden 3rd on 343, Colin Turkington 4th on 330 and Jason Plato 5th on 329.

With only the final three races of the year at Brands Hatch on October 12th and 13th remaining, it is Andrew Jordan who holds a 34 point advantage over his nearest rival and looks to be in control, however touring car racing is a difficult sport to predict and anything can happen! While we look forward to all the action, watch out for our Brands Hatch preview and your chance to win tickets to be there for the title showdown.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media