Double for Flash as Team Halfords regain lead
Gordon Shedden was the undoubted star of the Halfords Castrol Racing Heroes Festival with a double victory to help Team Halfords regain its lead in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
After a tough weekend at Croft two weeks earlier, Flash responded in perfect fashion by claiming pole position and victories in the first two races of the day - adding a podium in race three despite a drive-through penalty.
Meanwhile team-mate, and defending champion Matt Neal, suffered a difficult day at the East Midlands circuit, but picked up three more points finishes to retain his place at the head of the championship standings.
Qualifying for the latest three rounds of the season saw Gordon involved in an epic battle for top spot with the MG of Colin Turkington, with the Team Halfords Honda Integra holding provisional pole until a brief red flag period when Richard Marsh spun in his Peugeot 307. When the session resumed with just seven minutes remaining, Turkington edged ahead, but Gordon put in a stunning lap of 1min 12.548secs to secure his place at the front of the grid. Matt meanwhile had to settle for seventh with maximum ballast in his Integra, but that was still three places ahead of title rival Jason Plato who could manage only tenth.
With bumper support from over 2000 Halfords employees cheering him on, Flash led at the start of race one, only to drop behind both Turkington and Fabrizio Giovanardi by the end of lap two. However a fine fight back saw him dispose of Giovanardi and then sweep past Turkington into a lead he wasn't to lose - posting the fastest lap of the race on his way to a third win of the season.
Matt meanwhile was unlucky to miss out on a podium place as he came home in fourth, the highlight of the race being a fine battle with Tom Chilton's Vauxhall that had seen the pair running side-by-side through the high speed Craner Curves.
Race two proved to be a chaotic affair, but for Flash, the trouble was all behind him and he led the majority of the race on the way to a second successive win. Although he dropped behind Giovanardi on the opening lap, he made light work of the Italian after a Safety Car period to retrieve the cars of Chilton and Pinkney from the gravel at the Old Hairpin. A second Safety Car period, this time to recover Plato from the gravel, wasn't going to distract Flash, who took his second win of the weekend.
"It's phenomenal," he said afterwards. "To qualify on pole and win once is great, but to convert it and win a second race with maximum ballast in unbelievable. I don't always seem to make it easy for myself but when I got past Fabrizio I was able to pull out a gap. What a fantastic car Team Halfords have given me for the weekend!"
Matt however was in the thick of the action and was involved in the incident that led to the second Safety Car period of the race. Running with Rob Collard and Plato through the Craner Curves, Matt was side-by-side with Collard who got sideways and span across the front of the Integra before Plato hit the rear of the Team Halfords car - before going off into the gravel. Despite being thrown sideways by the impact, Matt managed to keep out of the gravel himself and recovered to finish fifth.
"It was similar to my run with Chilton in the opening race," he said afterwards. "I tried to straight line the kerb through the left hand part of Craner to give Rob space but it bounced me across me a bit. He had space but we made light contact and he put a wheel on the grass. It's unfortunate for Rob, and then Jason creamed the back of the pair of us. I couldn't back off because as soon as I got near Jason he was driving into the back of me."
The final race of the day proved to be even more dramatic as a start line accident forced four cars to retire and brought out the red flags. On the restart, Gordon was a little too eager to get away off the line and picked up a drive-through penalty, but further Safety Car periods and some fine driving in the tricky conditions allowed him to overcome the penalty to claim a third podium finish of the day.
Once again though, Matt was in the thick of the action and was fighting for the lead with Turkington when he went off in the rain at the Old Hairpin. Although he was able to power his way through the gravel trap, he dropped to the back of the pack, before recovering to finish seventh.
"When I braked for the corner I thought we were ok," he said. "I could see Colin was struggling through the Old Hairpin and I was trying to take a little bit out of him, and tried too much. I made a mistake and that one was down to me.
"It's been a disappointing weekend for me personally from a points point of view, but looking at the positives, it's been a great weekend for Team Halfords. Flash has had two wins and a third to move up to third in the standings, we are back into the lead of the teams' championship and I'm still leading the drivers' so as a team it hasn't been a bad day."
Matt now leads the championship by 22 points from Turkington, while Flash has jumped up from fifth in the standings to third. However for the team, the big gains from the weekend came in the teams' standings, turning a two point deficit to SEAT into a 42 point lead heading to Snetterton.
"There have been some good points gained by us and Gordan has had a brilliant weekend," team principal Steve Neal said. "He banged it on pole and took two wins and even with the penalty came back to get a third in race three, and a really good third at that, so all credit to him.
"You need down days to appreciate the up days and Matt had a bit of a down day, but he still leads the championship quite comfortably."
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