Gordon Shedden has secured his first win of the 2007 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season after storming to victory in the 13th round of the season at
Oulton Park.
The Team Halfords driver was able to battle his way past the pole sitting
BMW 320si of
Colin Turkington early in the race and then pulled out a lead he wasn't to lose en route to his first victory since the team switched to the Honda Civic at the start of the season.
When the race got underway, with the anticipated rain having stayed away, Turkington made the best start to lead into Old Hall for the first time with Shedden settling into second and Fabrizio Giovanardi storming through to third – despite starting down in sixth place.
Matt Neal had dropped one place to fourth, with
Mat Jackson and Tom Chilton rounding out the top six – points leader
Jason Plato having dropped to seventh ahead of Dave Pinkney.
As the field started the second lap, so Shedden made his move for the lead when, having already looked up the inside at Lodge, he dived down the inside Old Hall, with the car getting slightly sideways as he made his way past Turkington into the lead of the race. Having been pushed wide as a result, Turkington also lost second to Giovanardi on the run to Cascades.
However, Pinkey's hopes of a strong finish with the A-Tech Alfa Romeo would soon come to an end on the second lap when, having made his way up from 13th on the opening lap, he was involved in a collision with the SEAT of Darren Turner on lap two at the hairpin. It resulted in Turner retiring on the spot, while Pinkney crabbed back to the pits in the ailing Alfa to allow the team to start work on repairing the machine for the second race.
Further down the field,
Tom Onslow-Cole was making progress from 18th on the grid following his accident in qualifying while Gareth Howell was also making moves up the order having started from the pitlane following a driveshaft issue as he made his way round to the grid – with Onslow-Cole on the verge of the points by the end of lap four and Howell not much further back.
