Honda’s Matt Neal scored his fourth British Touring Car win of the season as he prevented eBay Motors’ Colin Turkington from taking a hat-trick in a very wet final race at Croft.
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At the start of the race polesitter Adam Morgan was immediately overtaken by eBay Motors’ Nick Foster, whilst further back both Neal and Turkington made strong starts to end the opening lap in third and fourth respectively.
Neal wasted no time in passing Morgan for second on the second lap of the race, whilst Morgan spun off the circuit further around the same lap. Early leader Foster was soon passed by Neal on lap three, with Turkington following past on the following lap. Thereafter Neal opened up a gap to just over one second to keep Turkington at bay, despite a final lap scare which saw the Northern Irishman close right up to the back of the lead Honda.
Andrew Jordan scored his first win of the day in third, a position which the Pirtek driver held since lap six after Foster dropped down to sixth.
The second works’ Honda of Gordon Shedden finished in fourth – incredibly the Scots first non-podium points finish of the season. Shedden overhauled eventual fifth-placed finisher Dave Newsham only on the penultimate lap of the race after Newsham suffered a slide on standing water.
Jason Plato finished in sixth, having started the race in 20th after his MG teams second race wet tyre gamble failed to pay off. His team-mate Sam Tordoff also carved a strong race through the field from 21st to seventh.
Taking his third top ten result of the day in eighth was Foster, having gradually dropped down the order throughout the race. Árón Smith and Jeff Smith completed the top ten respectively for Airwaves Racing and Pirtek Racing.
There was only one finisher in the Jack Sears Trophy after James Kaye went off on the final lap of the race, his second off-track excursion of the race. Lea Wood took the class win to further extend his lead in the category.
Jack Goff retired from the race after nine laps, reporting a loss of power in his Team HARD Vauxhall Insignia. Also retiring was poleman Morgan, who went straight on into the barriers at turn one on lap four in a repeat of his accident in second practice.
Welch Motorsport’s Daniel Welch and David Nye failed to finish the race after an incident at the hairpin on the opening lap.
The result sees Neal continued to lead the championship on 224 points ahead of Jordan on 205 and Plato on 188.