Oulton Park BTCC: Neal victorious, Shedden tyre failure denies Honda 1-2

Neal took the lead from the reverse grid pole, while Shedden worked his way up to second from third on the grid at Druids corner on the first lap, with the two storming away at the front of the field.

The pair had more than 10 seconds on the rest of the grid with just two laps to go, but a front left tyre failure for Shedden on the way in to Knickerbrook ended the 1-2 and caused Shedden to drop down to 23rd at the chequered flag.

Much of the race was a relatively straightforward affair, with little to no overtaking in the first 12 laps, although on lap 13 things began to heat up with Josh Cook trying to find a way past third-placed Tom Ingram.

The move bunched up the long train of cars behind, with Sam Tordoff, who had nursed his soft tyres for the duration of the race, benefitting the most, working his way past both Cook and Ingram in the final two laps to finish second after Shedden’s puncture.

Cook attempted to find a way past Ingram on the final lap around the outside of Lodge corner, resulting in Ingram putting two wheels on the grass and allowing Jason Plato to take to steal his third third-place finish on the day.

Ingram came through to take fourth, followed by Cook, but the pair’s battle didn’t end at the line, with some on-track altercations taking place at Old Hall between the two on the cool-down lap.

Rob Collard finished sixth from P25 in the West Surrey Racing BMW, with Race 1 winner Colin Turkington taking seventh and Motorbase Performance’s Andrew Jordan taking eighth.

Jake Hill took a career best result of ninth in the TeamHARD Toyota Avensis, while Adam Morgan, who endured a torrid Saturday, finally came through to take a top-10 finish in his family run Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class.

Thanks to Shedden’s late-race puncture, Tordoff takes a one point lead in to his home circuit at Croft, leading Neal and Collard.

James Charman / TouringCarTimes