Sam Tordoff muscled his way through the field from tenth to win the second race of the day at Rockingham. The WSR driver came home ahead of Motorbase’s Andrew Jordan and team-mate Rob Collard.

Drama began even before the lights went out as Dan Welch stopped just after the start of the formation lap, while Tom Ingram was forced to return to the pits due to a turbo problem.

At the start, once again Motorbase’s Mat Jackson was quicker off the line in his Ford, but Race 1 winner Gordon Shedden managed to stay ahead. Contact at the first corner involved Jackson, Subaru drivers Jason Plato and Colin Turkington, Triple Eight’s Josh Cook and WSR’s Jack Goff. Plato had to retire due to damage, while the others continued in damaged cars.

Amid the carnage Shedden still led from Jackson, Jordan and Tordoff. It was soon clear that Shedden was struggling on the option, harder compund tyre, as the Honda driver began to lose track positions. Turkington had a big moment on the main straight as he made contact with Dave Newsham and spun at high speed, avoiding contact with the wall.

On the sixth lap Rob Collard jumped up to fourth and launched himself in the pursuit of the leaders. Meanwhile team-mate Tordoff overtook Jordan and, on lap 10, took the lead of the race with a clean pass at the first corner. From then on the BMW driver was able to open up a gap and his lead was never under threat.

Attention then shifted to Rob Collard, who closed a six-seconds gap in six laps, overtaking a struggling Jackson to challenge Jordan’s second place, but the Ford driver held on and finished second. A close fight for tenth saw Turkington spin on the last lap.

Tordoff won the race ahead of Jordan and Collard, with Jackson a quite distant fourth. MG’s Ashley Sutton finished a consistent race in fifth ahead of Team Dynamics’ Matt Neal in the Honda. A close fight behind him saw team BKR’s Aron Smith finish seventh – and on pole position for Race 3 – ahead of Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan. The twin Mercedes A-Class of Aiden Moffat came home ninth after a close fight, while Gordon Shedden successfully defended tenth from Newsham.

Tordoff extends his championship lead to 18 points from Neal, with Shedden in third, now 37 points behind the leader. Jackson’s fourth place leves him fourth in the standings, 2 points behind Shedden.