Ding ding, round two at Rockingham

Sunday, 18 September 2011 16:40

The pace has been relentless at Rockingham and the second BTCC race of the afternoon proved no exception.

Congratulations went to Scot Gordon Shedden whose win has pushed him to the front of the championship with 182 points. Frank Wrathall continued a great weekend with second place, although he was very close to being a step higher on the podium. A 0.380 second gap seperated the Civic and the Avensis with the gripped crowd left wondering what may have been had another lap or two been possible.

Shedden's team-mate Neal finished 3rd ahead of rival Plato. Nick Foster enjoyed one of his best BTCC weekend's to grab 5th with James Nash 6th, O'Neill kept the points tally going up with a 7th whilst Jeff Smith claimed Pirtek Racing's only points of the race with an 8th. Rob Austin claimed two points for 9th to bring his total weekend tally to six and Foster's teammate Rob Collard rounded out the top ten. Due to the reverse draw it will be Rob starting in P1 for race three.

Mat Jackson must be wondering just what he's done to deserve such bad luck - with five retirements in the subsequent races since he took the championship lead he's set his own unique record, although safe to say it's not quite the claim to fame he'd have wanted. Mat and the Airwaves Racing team have always been a favourite with Girlracer and we look forward to seeing him at least begin finishing races again soon.

In the meantime, with Caine also retired, it fell to Liam Griffin to deliver a second 16th place for the team. In what is very much a learning year, Griffin is certainly gaining a wealth of experience and continuing to display a great attitude to his situation.

Also suffering a bout of bad luck at Rockingham, Team Aon. Neate retired on lap 13 with Chilton and Onslow-Cole 11th and 12th after a series of scrapes, mostly courtesy of each other! However, with a great working relationship between the trio and a good buzz around the team I'm sure there won't be too many hard feelings.

Alex MacDowall again finished out of the points in 15th. The young Cumbrian has shown a lot of the dogged determination that makes up any great racer but, when combined with frustrating finishes and a lack of points, it can do more harm than good. Hopefully race three will bring better things.