BTCC Rockingham Review

There were 3 different race winners in another exciting day of BTCC action.

Gordon Shedden won for Team Halfords in his Honda Civic in race 1, leading home Darren Turner and Vauxhall's Matt Neal. Independant driver Adam Jones was 4th in his petrol powered Seat Leon. Fabrizio Giovanardi was 5th in race 1, with Matt Jackson 6th.

In race 2, Matt Jackson took a fine victory from 6th on the grid, with Giovanardi second having started 5th. Darren Turner led initially in his diesel Leon but then lost momentum when he was passed by Giovanardi. Jackson followed past as well into second and soon after overtook Giovanardi when the Italian ran slightly off the track.

For race 3, the top 8 places were reversed for the grid, meaning Adam Jones and Tom Chilton started on the front row. The start was aborted so everyone could change to wets as the rain was coming down hard. Once the race did get underway, Colin Turkington pulled out a big lead, only to lose it when the safety car was deployed. This benefitted Jason Plato who had earlier had a 30 second stop go penalty as his mechanics were on the grid after the 3 minute limit before the race. When the race restarted Turkington lost his lead to Tom Chilton after a couple of laps, who then ran wide letting Turkington back through. Matt Jackson attacked the RAC car, but there was contact sending Jackson into the gravel. Eventually Matt Neal got past Turkington, and went on to take his first win in 13 months. Turkington came home 7th, losing many places in the closing stages. Tom Chilton and Adam Jones made it onto the podium, with Gordon Shedden 4th, Giovanardi kept his championship lead with 5th, and Plato recovered to take 6th. Rob Collard and Erkut Kizilirmak took their first points of the season with 8th and 10th respectively.

Championship Standings after race 6:

1 Fabrizio Giovanardi, VX Racing, 63

2 Mat Jackson, BMW Dealer Team UK, 56

3 Gordon Shedden, Team Halfords, 50

4 Matt Neal, VX Racing, 47

5 Darren Turner, Seat Sport UK, 38

6 Jason Plato, Seat Sport UK, 35

7 Colin Turkington, Team RAC, 30

8 Tom Chilton, Team Halfords, 25

9 Adam Jones, Team Air Cool, 23

10 Tom Onslow-Cole, VX Racing, 20