Shepherd’s Snetterton win moves him closer to TCR UK title
Adam Shepherd won the first race of the weekend at Snetterton, leading from start-to-finish, but it was a dramatic wet second race which saw disaster for his title rival Callum Newsham who retired after an incident with Steven Laidlaw, and also delivered a surprise first time winner in George Jaxon on his first appearance at the wheel of a CUPRA Leon VZ.
Newsham’s DNF allowed Shepherd to significantly extend his lead; the Capture Motorsport driver has a comfortable margin of 33 points over Newsham after the dropped score system is applied, heading into theseason finale at Brands Hatch on November 1/2.
Sam Laidlaw remains mathematically in contention, but he has a gap of 78 points when 88 are still at stake.
Race 1 – Shepherd had secured pole position, while Jaxon set his best qualifying result with the second-fastest time over half a tenth down on Shepherd. Jaxon lined up at the back of the grid having change car, just like Newsham who had switched to a Hyundai Elantra. This promoted series debutant Max Hall to the front row, but he made a slow start and dropped to fifth, with Shepherd leading ahead of Sam and Steve Laidlaw. Hall quickly made-up positions, passing Bradley Hutchison on the opening lap and then both Laidlaws on laps 3 and 4.
Newsham was flying up the order, advancing to sixth before the end of the first lap. The Scotsman picked off both Hutchison and Steve Laidlaw on lap 3, before capitalising on a mistake by Sam Laidlaw at the start of lap 4 to move up to third.
Newsham then overtook Hall on lap 5, and the race at the front settled down, with Shepherd romping to a comfortable victory, seven seconds clear, while Newsham pulled out a nine second gap on Hall.
Race 2 – Rain fell heavily before the start, providing tricky conditions. The two CUPRA cars of Harry Bloor and Mark Smith started from the first row of the reversed grid, but Bloor stalled and was lucky not to be collected by the field behind. Will Beech assumed the lead but was passed by Jaxon on the opening lap. Beech was soon dropping down the order, passed by Hutchison and Hall, while Newsham and Sam Laidlaw made light contact on lap 2 while fighting for seventh, with Laidlaw turned into a spin.
A lap later and Newsham and Steve Laidlaw also made light contact and in the wet conditions both pirouetted off into the barriers and retired.
On lap six, Hall dived down the inside of Hutchison and claimed second place, at least until the stewards’ investigation post-race, in which he was handed an 8.010 second penalty, redressing the position back to Hutchison.
Jaxon excelled in the wet and went on to secure his first TCR UK victory, ten seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Shepherd was battling with Hutchison for third in the final stages, but with his title rival Newsham out of the race, played it relatively safe to bring home his CUPRA in fourth.
Race 1
- Adam Shepherd (Capture Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 11 laps
- Callum Newsham (JH Racing, Hyundai Elantra N), 7.070
- Maximus Hall (Ben Sharpe Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 16.269
Race 2
- George Jaxon (Vannin Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 9 laps
- Bradley Hutchison (MPH Racing, CUPRA Leon Competición), 10.105
- Maximus Hall (Ben Sharpe Racing, Lynk & Co 03), 10.106
Championship points
- A. Shepherd, 463 pts; 2. C. Newsham, 430; 3. S. Laidlaw, 385
Picture: TCR UK/Jakob Ebrey
