Matt Neal won the opening British Touring Car race of the day at Thruxton after Andrew Jordan suffered a puncture on the final lap of the race.
Click here for the full Round 7 Results.
The win was Neal’s 50th victory in the series, but it was unexpected as Jordan had controlled the race from the end of the first lap.
Jordan was slightly slower off the line than Gordon Shedden in the works Honda Civic and it was the Scotsman who led into Campbell curve, before he was tagged from behind by Jason Plato’s MG, sending the Honda into the barriers. That allowed Jordan to regain his lead, with Neal slotting into second and Plato retaining third.
As the race progressed, Jordan and Neal eased away from Plato who was unable to match the lead pair’s pace, and instead had to resist the urges of Tom Onslow-Cole, who had worked his way past Sam Tordoff in the second MG. Though the team HARD driver was able to catch Plato, he remained behind the MG for the remainder of the race.
Nontheless Jordan’s off ensured that Onslow-Cole scored the Passat’s first podium in the series, which also made him the leading independent driver.
Jordan’s teammate Jeff Smith recovered from a poor getaway to finish on the tail of Tordoff who had a quiet run to fourth, whilst after biding his time Mat Jackson had a welcome run to seventh in his Airwaves Ford Focus, with Aron Smith in ninth. Dave Newsham was the meat in that sandwich, with Adam Morgan claiming tenth place just ahead of the ailing Jordan.
After a decent start, Frank Wrathall faded terribly to 15th place, ahead of the Speedworks Toyota of Ollie Jackson.
As expected, the S2000 battle was a thrilling addition to the race. Joe Girling kept his lead from the start, but the pack was very tightly bunched with Rob Austin sandwiched in the middle of the group. After Lea Wood muscled his way into the lead of the pack, M247 driver Girling had a slight off and fell to the tail of the train, whilst James Kaye retired soon after.
Liam Griffin eventually emerged as the winner of the trophy, having passed Wood before missing the chicane and re-passing Austin, ensuring there was a buffer between himself and the rest of the pack.