the norm in recent seasons, Shedden heads to Croft seeking to continue his comeback from a difficult start to the season, although his run of podium finishes came to an end in the final race of the weekend at Oulton. Currently 24 points behind Plato, Shedden will hope to close in on the top three but will also need to be wary of the challenge of Sam Tordoff behind, with the rookie seeking to
make the most of the pace shown by MG last time out in what will be his home race. Tordoff saw his run of points finishes end in Cheshire but also picked up his best result to date with second place in race one – something he will seek to at least repeat before the summer break. Rounding out the top six is Colin Turkington, the man who has the best Croft record of anyone in the field. The eBay Motors man has six wins
CROFT
RECENT HISTORY 2012 Pole
Matt Neal, Honda Civic
Race One
Matt Neal, Honda Civic
Race Two
Gordon Shedden, Honda Civic
Race Three
Jason Plato, MG6 GT
2011 Pole
Jason Plato, Chevrolet Cruze
Race One
Matt Neal, Honda Civic
Race Two
Matt Neal, Honda Civic
Race Three
Mat Jackson, Ford Focus ST
2010 Pole
Tom Chilton, Ford Focus ST
Race One
Gordon Shedden, Honda Civic
Race Two
Gordon Shedden, Honda Civic
Race Three
Andrew Jordan, Vauxhall Vectra
2009
to his name at the circuit over the years, including a double victory on his last appearance back in 2009. While his WSR-run team is still working to unlock the full potential from its new NGTC-spec car, Turkington enjoyed his best weekend of the season at Oulton Park with a double podium and his target will be to add to the victory he took at Donington Park earlier in the year. The likes of Adam Morgan and Rob Austin also heads for Croft having impressed on track at Oulton Park, with Austin seeing an upturn in fortune after switching to the TOCA engine in his Audi A4. Team-mate Will Bratt, now running under the Rob Austin Racing banner rather than under WIX Racing, is set to make the engine switch at Croft.
NGTC-spec Ford Focus. In the Jack Sears Trophy, Lea Wood will seek to drive home his advantage in the standings following the announcement that closest challenger, Liam Griffin, will be missing for the weekend. With Griffin replaced by debutant Jake Hill, Wood could extend his lead to four race wins if results go his way, although the returning James Kaye will seek to put his title challenge back on track in the AmDTuning.com VW Golf. Joe Girling should also be back, having missed the Oulton Park weekend for unspecified medical reasons.
Croft is also set to see the BTCC’s biggest grid of the season so far, with Andy Neate scheduled to debut his IP Tech Race Engineering Chevrolet Cruze after late issues forced him to delay his first outing of the year, and Michael Caine making his first outing for Addison Lee Motorbase in a third
Pole
Colin Turkington, BMW 320si
Race One
Colin Turkington, BMW 320si
Race Two
Colin Turkington, BMW 320si
CROFT STATS
Race Three
Fabrizio Giovanardi, Vauxhall Vectra
LENGTH
2.25 miles
2013 RACE LAPS
15
RACE DISTANCE
33.75 miles
LAP RECORD (QUALIFYING)
1min 24.629secs (Tom Chilton – 2012)
LAP RECORD (RACE)
1min 25.749secs (James Thompson - 2002
MOST WINS (1991-)
Colin Turkington – 6
2008 Pole
Darren Turner, SEAT Leon TDi
Race One
Colin Turkington, BMW 320si
Race Two
Colin Turkington, BMW 320si
Race Three
Fabrizio Giovanardi, Vauxhall Vectrs
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