The scene was set. In order for Plato to remain in the championship hunt, he would have to finish race two in sixth place with rival Matt Neal failing to score any points. If Neal wins the race, team mate Shedden will have to finish in 3rd place in order to keep his championship dreams alive. Would the 2011 Championship be decided in this race?
After the incident at the start in race one, Tony Gilham was on the grid in his brightly coloured BMW. The Geoff Steel Racing driver sharing the back of the field with Rob Austin, James Thompson, Mat Jackson and Jason Plato, both of whom had a disastrous start to the day.
At the start, Neal ran very wide going to Copse, which saw team mate Shedden take the lead, whilst Team Aon driver Tom Onslow-Cole had a brilliant start and took advantage of Neal’s mistake to take second. WSR driver Rob Collard also had a great start from 8th on the grid.
Contact midfield at Brooklands saw Frank Wrathall’s Toyota Avensis passenger door swinging open. The Dynojet driver was soon given the black mechanical flag and pitted to sort out the problem.
Tony Gilham was struggling out on track, whilst back at Airwaves, another devastating weekend for Mat Jackson saw him pit early on in the race with his second puncture of the day. This is not the way the Airwaves team wanted to end the season.
Further down the field, Jason Plato was dicing with Chris Swanick in the second Rob Austin Racing Audi for track position, trying desperately to defend his championship, whilst up front Shedden still led from Onslow-Cole and team mate Neal.
A horrid weekend for GoMobileUK saw Paul O’Neill have to pit in his Chevrolet Cruze, whilst a wide move from Tom Onslow-Cole saw him slip back behind Neal, leaving the championship leader to chase team mate Shedden.
Running 15th on track, Jason Plato set the pace with the fastest lap, whilst Dave Newsham was having a strong race for Special Tuning racing, running fourth behind the leaders. Despite running wide through Copse, Plato took a place from now crowned Indie Champion James Nash in the Triple 8 Vectra.
Matt Neal was now flying at Silverstone and was closing in on his Honda Racing team mate in first place, whereas down the field contact was made with Jeff Smith and Rob Austin with both drivers losing track position.
Now running in twelfth behind team mate MacDowall, Plato was looking strong after his first race dramas however the Chevrolet driver was not in a point scoring finish just yet. Having lapped Martin Byford, Plato made his move stick on MacDowall for eleventh, and was soon in tenth after a battle with Liam Griffin’s Airwaves Racing Ford Focus at Brooklands.
Shedden was still leading up front to Matt Neal, whilst contact for Dan Welch and Nick Foster saw Plato shoot up to eighth place. A spin for Nick Foster on the start/finish straight after his tangle with Welch saw him leave debris all over the track - after being collected by James Thompson - and brought out the safety car. There was no clear path on track for cars to make their way through the debris, so all drivers were treading carefully and were cautious about picking up punctures.
A good restart from Shedden saw him maintain a good lead over Matt Neal, who was being chased by Tom Onslow-Cole, with Newsham defending fourth from Andrew Jordan.
James Nash was jostling with Liam Griffin but was unable to maintain the move, meanwhile Aon driver Andy Neate was on a charge – a battle which saw Nash slightly tapped by Griffin and losing position.
Gordon Shedden was the Honda driver to shine, and came across the line in first place followed closely behind by Matt Neal and Tom Onslow-Cole, who brought home a terrific result for Team Aon. Jason Plato managed to finish in seventh place, however was too far behind the Hondas, meaning the Chevrolet driver was mathematically out of the hunt.
Another great race for Special Tuning Racing saw Newsham finishing in 4th place and Tom Boardman in a strong 6th.
With six points separating the two Honda drivers, the championship will be decided during a nail biting final race of the day. Which man will come out on top come the end of the day?
No comments:
Post a Comment