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British Touring Car Championship
Knockhill - Race 3 Report - 24/8/14

By MJP Media | 24 August 2014

Rob Collard wins the final race of the day as the eBay Motors team get their 3 cars into the top 4 in the final race from Knockhill.

Rob Collard lifts the winner's silverware for race 3

As the sun started to set on an absolutely sensational day of racing in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill in Scotland, we have learned that all things are possible, including championship leader Colin Turkington finishing 4th after starting 27th on the grid. Local hero Gordon Shedden was desperate for a similar result to keep up the pressure on Turkington at the top of the standings.

Off the line it was eBay Motors' Nick Foster ahead of Fabrizio Giovanardi, Dave Newsham and Rob Collard as everyone got through the first corner unscathed. By the end of lap one, Collard was up to third ahead of Newsham with Tom Ingram in 5th and Adam Morgan in 6th. Through the hairpin on lap 2, a mistake from Giovanardi let Rob Collard through into 2nd. Championship leader Colin Turkington in the 3rd eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport was 6th. Championship rivals Jason Plato and Gordon Shedden were down in 9th and 12th.

Inverness based Dave Newsham finished 2nd for AmD Tuning.com

On lap 8, Rob Collard passed Nick Foster for the lead and Colin Turkington moved up to 5th. Lap 9 saw a mistake from Foster and Dave Newsham and Tom Ingram were able to get past into 2nd and 3rd respectively. As Turkington fought up to 4th, Gordon Shedden was up to 8th, with Jason Plato back in 11th after hitting Rob Austin and causing the Audi to retire with broken suspension. Lap 13 saw Turkington up to 3rd and with the bit really between his teeth, he set off after Newsham and Collard.

With 5 laps to go, Rob Collard was in a commanding lead 3.3 seconds ahead of Dave Newsham who was 1 second ahead of Colin Turkington in 3rd. Gordon Shedden was back in 6th with Jason Plato struggling in 10th. There then followed a period of total madness as Nick Foster tried time and again to get past team-mate and championship leader Colin Turkington with the cars almost touching on several occasions and more importantly allowing Dave Newsham to pull away slightly.

Rob Collard on his way to victory at Knockhill

At the chequered flag, Rob Collard was in the lead by over 6 seconds to record his first win since Knockhill 2012 with Dave Newsham 2nd and Colin Turkington 3rd. Nick Foster came home in 4th with Andrew Jordan 5th, Gordon Shedden 6th, Adam Morgan 7th, Alain Menu 8th, Tom Ingram 9th and Jason Plato 10th. This was the first ever meeting where all three races were won by cars using the Dunlop soft option tyres.

As the teams head for Rockingham on the 6th and 7th of September, Colin Turkington has strengthened his grip on the championship with a total of 309 points. Gordon Shedden is still 2nd on 286 points with Jason Plato 3rd on 270 points. Rob Collard is now 4th in the title race with 220 points, 3 points ahead of Andrew Jordan on 217. It will be up to Plato and Shedden to try and reel in Turkington - it looks like the battle will go down to the wire!

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