Collard completes BMW clean sweep at Croft
Rob Collard made it three out of three wins for the West Surrey Racing team at Croft in the final race of the BTCC weekend, passing Gordon Shedden to seal the victory.
Rob Collard, Team JCT1600 With Gardx
Pat Cranham/PSP Images
Leading away teammate Andy Priaulx from a reverse grid pole position, Collard soon found himself coming under pressure from the soft tyre-shod works Honda Civic Type-R of Shedden.
The championship leader, having picked off Priaulx for second, was able to wrest away the lead in an audacious move at the Jim Clark Esses on the third lap, having made a better exit out of Tower.
But Shedden’s tyres were not able to go the distance, allowing Collard to close back in on his rival and retake the lead with three laps remaining at the chicane, making light contact and forcing Shedden to cut the corner in the process.
Collard went on to secure the win by a margin of seven seconds, as Shedden slipped to third behind Priaulx – also running soft tyres – at the final corner on the last lap.
Colin Turkington held onto his grid position of fourth, surviving race-long pressure from Jason Plato, with Sam Tordoff, carrying maximum ballast and on soft tyres, a tenth behind Plato in sixth.
Matt Neal, another driver to opt for the soft rubber, was as high as seventh after moving up early on from his grid slot of 11th, but slipped to ninth in the closing stages behind Tom Ingram’s Toyota and Jack Goff’s MG.
Team BMR boss Warren Scott completed the top 10, his best result of the season, while Andrew Jordan’s disastrous weekend continued as he was forced to pit after sustaining suspension damage.
Pos | Driver | Manufacturer | Time | Gap |
1 | Rob Collard | BMW | 21m45.389 | |
2 | Andy Priaulx | BMW | 21m52.638 | 7.249 |
3 | Gordon Shedden | Honda | 21m53.362 | 7.973 |
4 | Colin Turkington | Volkswagen | 21m55.974 | 10.585 |
5 | Jason Plato | Volkswagen | 21m56.940 | 11.551 |
6 | Sam Tordoff | BMW | 21m57.121 | 11.732 |
7 | Tom Ingram | Toyota | 21m59.030 | 13.641 |
8 | Jack Goff | MG | 22m00.702 | 15.313 |
9 | Matt Neal | Honda | 22m02.957 | 17.568 |
10 | Warren Scott | Volkswagen | 22m07.753 | 22.364 |
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