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British Touring Car Championship
Knockhill - Race 2 Report - 24/8/14

By MJP Media | 24 August 2014

Mat Jackson take his first win of the 2014 BTCC season in the 2nd race from Knockhill. Rob Austin gets his 2nd podium of the day.

Mat Jackson sprays his victory champagne

With Honda Yuasa Racing's Gordon Shedden having closed the gap on championship leader Colin Turkington in race 1 and starting race 2 some 24 places higher than the eBay Motors BMW driver who is just 1 place ahead of 2013 champion Andrew Jordan, could we see a change in the championship lead?

Matt Neal lined up on pole ahead of Rob Austin and Gordon Shedden with Mat Jackson fourth and Jason Plato fifth. Away from the line, Matt Neal got a great start, however Rob Austin went off at the first corner and re-joined at the second corner, causing chaos and multiple impacts including Gordon Shedden who re-joined in last place with Warren Scott left stranded in the gravel, bringing out the safety car for one lap. As the safety car pulled in, Matt Neal was given a drive through penalty for jumping the start. He came in to serve the penalty on lap 4, leaving Mat Jackson in the lead ahead of Jason Plato and Rob Austin who had his mirrors filled by a charging Adam Morgan in the Wix Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class.

Mat Jackson is delighted with his first BTCC victory since 2012

At one third distance, Colin Turkington was up to 13th from 27th on the grid and set the fastest lap of the race so far, whilst Mat Jackson had stretched his lead to a massive 1.5 seconds. On lap 9, Turkington was up to eleventh and starting to claw back points on Shedden. There was then a big impact for Martin Depper after he was hit by Matt Neal however no safety car was required. At the half way stage it was Mat Jackson from Jason Plato with a 2.5 second lead with Rob Austin in third, a third of a second behind and Adam Morgan in 4th a further second down.

Colin Turkington continued his charge behind the leaders and by lap 19 out of 25 he was up to 7th behind his team-mate Rob Collard in 6. Collard and Turkington were then able to take Tom Ingram, moving them to 5th and 6th respectively. Would there be team orders to Rob Collard to let Turkington through? This could be vital as Shedden was still back in 13th and if he stayed there, would miss the reverse grid.

Colin Turkington finished 4th from 27th on the grid

Colin Turkington then moved up to 5th on lap 23 then both Turkington and Collard managed to squeeze past Adam Morgan and Turkington was up to 4th from 27th on the grid. With the leading three cars out on their own it was a first win since 2012 for Mat Jackson in the Airwaves Ford Focus ST ahead of Jason Plato and Rob Austin with Colin Turkington 4th and Rob Collard 5th. There was a final moment of drama when Nick Foster and Aron Smith came together 100 yards from the finish line with Aron Smith's Volkswagen CC suffering a huge impact with the tyre wall. Smith was unhurt, but looked massively aggrieved and was last seen running in the direction of the eBay Motors garage!

Colin Turkington was therefore able to increase his championship lead over Gordon Shedden to 19 points with Jason Plato only 9 points behind. It now looks as though Andrew Jordan's title hopes are over as he slips to 5th in the standings, one point behind Mat Jackson, but crucially almost 90 points behind Colin Turkington. With the reverse grid drawn as number 10, this means that Nick Foster will be on pole for race 3 ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi, Dave Newsham, Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan. Colin Turkington will start 7th, Jason Plato 9th and Gordon Shedden 12th. This will be a great race!

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