Gordon Shedden, Sam Tordoff and Ãrón Smith claimed wins at the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham today.
Smith became the 12th different winner this season – a record for the BTCC – as Tordoff, in his BMW 125i M Sport, extended his lead at the top of the standings ahead of the penultimate round at Silverstone next month.
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Honda’s Shedden, last year’s champion, claimed pole in the first race of the day after a rain-soaked qualifying session on Saturday. He dominated race one in his Honda Civic on Sunday at the Northamptonshire circuit, holding off competition from Mat Jackon’s Ford and winning from pole despite the disruption of a safety car.
Championship leader Tordoff won his second race of the season in the second race of the day after starting on the fifth row. An early clash of several front runners presented the opportunity to Tordoff to pick off his rivals and eventually overtake Mat Jackson and Andrew Jordan to claim victory.
In the final race of the day, Smith overcame three safety car periods to claim the first victory for Team BKR in his Volkswagen CC. He held off pressure from Shedden and Subaru’s Colin Turkington to take the victory.
"The car came alive for the last race," Smith said. "I had to nail the restarts and I did, which helped.
"I had pressure. Once I saw Colin Turkington into third, I knew I would be OK because he would fight Gordon Shedden pretty hard," he added.
The results see championship leader Tordoff maintain his five-point lead at the top of the table ahead of Honda’s Matt Neal and Shedden, who is 20 points off top spot.
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