Matt Neal has taken his fourth victory of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship season after a hard fought victory from Pole Position. Neal’s victory means that the Honda Yuasa Racing has taken the last six victories on the trot.
Before the race even started the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6 of Jason Plato was pushed into the pits with an electrical problem and failed to take the start for the second meeting in succession. Plato was, however, able to join the race for ten exploratory laps later on.
The start of the race saw pole man Neal get a poor start, allowing fellow Honda racers Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan to pass him before the first corner. Further back contact between Nick Foster, Daniel Welch and Dave Newsham caused an accident that sent Newsham spearing into the pitwall and out of the race. Welch was also out on the spot, whilst Foster continued in the race after repairs to his BMW, albiet two laps down.
The safety car was brought out at the end of the opening lap and when it returned to the pits at the end of lap four, Neal immediately began to pressure Jordan in front, finding a way past on the following lap. Collard was able to follow through in the move, demoting Jordan to a fourth place he would remain in for the rest of the race.
Lap twelve saw Neal pass Shedden into Tower bend, which in turn opened the door to allow Collard to follow through on the run up to Sunny In. Carrying the maximum 45 kg of success ballast, Shedden was unable to fight back and by the end of the race had dropped to almost five seconds behind the leading duo.
Collard tried to pass Neal in the closing stages of the race, but was ultimately unable to do so and he finished just 0.401 seconds behind the reigning champion.
Finishing in a season-best fifth position was Rob Austin, who had an eventful race. Despite getting a poor start from seventh on the grid – which saw him drop to tenth at the end of the opening lap, Austin fought his way back through the field. Andy Neate finished in sixth, taking his best result of the year at the same time.
The third ebay Motors BMW of Tom Onslow-Cole took the flag in seventh, despite a spin on lap eight that dropped him down to 14th. The eBay Motors driver was clearly enjoying the Croft circuit in his rear-wheel drive BMW as he posted the fastest lap of the race.
Mat Jackson finished in eighth, ahead of Will Bratt in the second Rob Austin Racing Audi. The result for Bratt marks the first time that Austin’s team have had two cars finish inside the top ten.
Árón Smith finished in tenth for Redstone Racing, whilst Ollie Jackson, Tony Gilham, Lea Wood, Liam Griffin and Adam Morgan completed the points paying positions down to 15th.
The returning Paul O’Neill had been running inside the top ten before his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis stopped on the run to the first corner. O’Neill finished seventeenth overall after getting the car started again.
Also failing to finish the race was Dynojet’s Frank Wrathall, who had been running in tenth when he stopped on lap 14 with mechanical problems.
The second race from Croft takes place at 1437 GMT.