Having expressed his wishes to win for the memory of David Leslie and Richard Lloyd, Gordon Shedden ensured that he paid the ultimate tribute to the pair with victory in the opening race of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship weekend at Rockingham.
The Team Halfords driver led from start-to-finish in a challenging race at the Northamptonshire venue, which started with rain in the air and ended with it falling heavily onto the circuit – providing difficult conditions for the drivers on track.
When the lights went green, Shedden made the best start to lead the way around the Rockingham banking towards Deene, while Darren Turner made a fine start from the second row of the grid to jump into second place ahead of front-row starter
Matt Neal. Adam Jones, who had started third, slipped down to fourth ahead of
Mat Jackson and
Colin Turkington. Further back,
Jason Plato appeared to get a nudge turning into Yentwood, with the Leon TDi getting out of shape and the 2001 champion slipping down to eleventh place.
It didn't take long for Plato to climb into the top ten however, as on lap two he forced his way past the Motorbase
BMW of Rob Collard on the quick run through the left-hander at Pif Paf, with Collard spinning off onto the grass and plummeting down the order. Colin Turkington was another BMW in trouble as he suddenly dropped from sixth to ninth with the Team RAC man slowly slipping down the field from that point onwards.
