Mat Jackson and Gordon Shedden, the latter with a victory double, shared the wins in today’s three rain-soaked Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the high-speed Thruxton circuit in north Hampshire.

Jason Plato continues to lead the points table but only just from new second-placed man Shedden Andrew Jordan had headed Saturday’s qualifying session to line up on pole position for the first of today’s races.

But it all went wrong for the Pirtek Racing driver at the first bend as his Honda Civic tangled with Plato’s MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 and crashed.

This left the way clear for Jackson to reel off his second win of the season in his Redstone Racing Ford Focus ahead of Dave Newsham in his Team ES Racing.com Vauxhall Vectra and Plato.

Newsham’s second place was the best of his career so far.

Having started from lowly 18th and 19th spots after a disastrous qualifying session, Shedden and team-mate Matt Neal, the reigning champion, were sixth and tenth.

Shedden was unstoppable in race two as he quickly made up positions to pass Jackson for the lead and a comfortable win.

Plato took second ahead of Jackson in third. Neal was fifth.

In race three Shedden and Neal then simply romped clear of the opposition to give Honda a dream 1-2 result.

Third, adding to earlier fifth and fourth place results, was Frank Wrathall in his Dynojet Toyota Avensis. Plato was fourth.

As a result, Plato left Thruxton holding a four-point lead from the charging Shedden.

Next up are Neal, Jackson and north Hampshire’s Robert Collard who, on his home track, took a fourth and two seventh places today in his eBay Motors BMW.

Plato enthused: “We’ve had zero running in the wet before with the MG so to take away a big points haul on a rainy day is very pleasing.”

Meanwhile, Honda/Dynamics and the Honda Yuasa Racing Team have extended their respective leads in the Manufacturers/Constructors and HiQ Teams championships respectively.

Jackson and Redstone Racing have taken over at the top of the Independent Drivers and Teams standings.