Giovanardi closes gap with Knockhill win

VX Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi has closed the gap to championship rival Colin Turkington with a win in the second race of the day at Knockhill. From sixth on the grid the Italian took the lead on lap 8, heading Mat Jackson and Turkington across the finish line.

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Jason Plato, winner of the opening race of the day, had been set to start the race from pole position but pulled into the pit lane after the formation lap reporting an engine misfire. This left Gordon Shedden effectively starting from pole position and the Scot led the race for the first seven laps.

On lap eight however Shedden locked a brake going into the hairpin and was then nerfed wide by Giovanardi, who had taken second place from Jackson earlier at Clark curve. Mat Jackson also managed to slip through to take second place, his second podium result of the day. Shedden then proceeded to slip backwards and ultimately would finish in ninth position.

The drive of the race came from Matt Neal who, after crashing out of race one, started from the back of the grid. The Vauxhall driver worked his way up through the field with some fine overtaking to take fourth position by the time the chequered flag came out.

There was a brief safety car period after race officials decided that a tyre stack that had been knocked onto the racing line at the chicane should be put back in place. ‘Conveniently’, this also closed the pack up, undoing the work of the leaders in establishing their advantage.

Paul O’Neill put in another strong drive to take fifth, with James Thompson finishing in sixth. Johnny Herbert, who will replaced Thompson for the next round at Silverstone, drew the random reverse grid and luckily selected Thompson to start from pole position for Round 21.

Finishing seventh was Jonny Adam. Shedden finished ninth, just two tenths of a second ahead of tenth-placed Andrew Jordan.

Rob Collard will have been hoping for a stronger race after his earlier disappointment, but his day did not improve. He finished in 12th after contact from Shedden pushed him into the gravel on lap 23.