A sensational final race victory has allowed reigning British Touring Car Championship title holder Gordon Shedden to become involved in the title chase once more.
'I'm definitely back in the championship hunt after this weekend,' said a gleeful Shedden, having stolen victory on the final lap from Rob Collard.
Collard looked to have turned an awful weekend around in the final race when he looked in command of race three but Shedden attacked the BMW racer and forced his way past on the Snetterton infield.
The summer break, and a new engine after free practice 1, invigorated Shedden who claimed his first pole position for three years.
'It all came together nicely,' confirmed the Honda Civic racer despite the best efforts of Colin Turkington and Adam Morgan to displace the reigning champion from top spot.
With the race one front row starters, Shedden and Turkington, choosing the soft tyre option it was a case of which car, the Honda or the Subaru, would look after its rubber best, which proved to be the rear wheel drive Subaru.
Turkington harried and hassled Shedden from the start, with Matt Jackson in third, but under the intense pressure the Honda driver's defences cracked the eighth time approaching Hamilton, allowing Turkington to race off to an easy victory.
Morgan displaced fast starting Ashley Sutton's MG6 for fourth early on, with the latter suffering a late puncture, elevating Jason Plato to fifth who was able to squeeze past Tom Ingram on the penultimate lap at Hamilton's. Of the title contender's series leader Sam Tordoff was a solid seventh, loaded with maximum success ballast, while his BMW team mate, and second in the points table, Rob Collard languished out of the points in 16th.
Race two was quickly stopped with three badly damaged cars littering the Bentley Straight but it didn't stop Jackson from powering his way to the front once the race restarted.
The Ford Focus racer used his soft tyres to good effect to jump Shedden off the starting line and then Turkington at Hamilton's to secure his third victory of the season.
'I sort of knew it was coming and it did' admitted Turkington afterwards of the pass by Jackson.
The start of the second lap saw Shedden's Honda being knocked all over the place which resulted in him being forced down the race order to finish 10th, leaving Morgan in third until Matt Neal was able to squeeze by the Mercedes driver at Agostino on lap five.
Meanwhile Collard was on one of his famous charges and from starting a lowly 16th was soon by fifth placed Plato and closing in on Morgan, who he demoted at Hamilton at half distance.
Collard then had Neal's third place in his sights and got alongside the Honda racer exiting Agostino but Neal wasn't prepared to give up his place and braved it out all the way to the Bentley Straight to hold onto the final rostrum place.
Series leader Tordoff was back in eighth, and drawn on pole for race three but was unable to take up his position as the propshaft broke, with Turkington's sixth podium of the season also bringing him into the title equation. Race three was also stopped when Hunter Abbott was launched into a series of rolls, ending up straddling the pit straight safety barriers and knocking over a trackside camera position, fortunately without injuring the operator.
Former Attleborough resident Ollie Jackson was also involved, his second major incident of the day having been entangled with the race two stoppage incident.
Collard's second place in the final race has put him at the top of the points by three points from Tordoff with Neal a further three back while Shedden has jumped from ninth to fourth, 25 points off the lead.
Race One: 1 Colin Turkington (Silverline Subaru Levorg); 2 Gordon Shedden (Halfords Yuasa Honda Civic); 3 Mat Jackson (Motorbase Ford Focus); 4 Adam Morgan (WIX Mercedes Benz A-Class); 5 Jason Plato (Silverline Subaru Levorg); 6 Tom Ingram (Speedworks Toyota Avensis); 7 Sam Tordoff (JCT 600 BMW 125i M); 8 Matt Neal (Halfords Yuasa Honda Civic); 9 Warren Scott (Silverline Subaru Levorg); 10 James Cole (Silverline Subaru Levorg).
Race Two: 1 Matt Jackson; 2 Colin Turkington; 3 Matt Neal; 4 Rob Collard (JCT 600 BMW 125i M); 5 Adam Morgan; 6 Jason Plato; 7 Tom Ingram; 8 Sam Tordoff; 9 Rob Austin (Handy Toyota Avensis); 10 Gordon Shedden.
Race Three: 1 Gordon Shedden; 2 Rob Collard; 3 Rob Austin; 4 Jason Plato; 5 Andrew Jordan (Motorbase Ford Focus); 6 Colin Turkington; 7 Adam Morgan; 8 Aiden Moffatt (Laser Tools Mercedes Benz A-Class); 9 Josh Cook (MG6); 10 Matt Neal.
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