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Croft BTCC: Matt Neal triumphs in sodden final race

Matt Neal won the wet reversed-grid British Touring Car race at Croft after a controlled drive

Heavy rain, that started just before the race, left the drivers little option but to start on wets, meaning that most of the runners did not have to use the soft slick tyre over the weekend.

Despite a quick start from Rob Collard, it was his WSR BMW team-mate Nick Foster who grabbed the lead into the first corner, while Neal moved through from row three to third on the opening lap.

As Collard fell back, poleman Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing Toyota) initially held second before succumbing to a charging Neal at Tower on lap two. The Toyota then had two offs, the second of which put Morgan into the barriers at Clervaux and out of the race.

Neal chased after Foster and moved into the lead on lap three, being followed - after contact between the two BMWs at the Jim Clark Esses - by Colin Turkington.

Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda, Dave Newsham Toyota Avensis and Gordon Shedden, who had been off at Sunny In earlier, also made it by Foster.

Neal, Turkington and Jordan were evenly matched until Jordan went off at Tower and had to settle for third.

Turkington seemed content with second and had fallen to over three seconds behind Neal going onto the final lap. But the leader then ran wide at Tower and had a slide before Sunny, allowing Turkington to close to within 0.6s at the flag.

Shedden caught and passed Newsham to take fourth in the closing stages to make it three Hondas in the top four.

Jason Plato's MG, which has traditionally struggled in the wet, was often the fastest car on the track as the double champion charged through to sixth from row 10, passing Foster late on.

Sam Tordoff all but matched his MG team leader to also pass Foster. He finished on Plato's bootlid.

After his main rivals hit trouble, Lea Wood took a comfortable Jack Sears Trophy win in his Vauxhall Vectra.

Results - 15 laps:

Pos  Driver            Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Matt Neal         Honda               24m06.538s
 2.  Colin Turkington  WSR BMW                +0.631s
 3.  Andrew Jordan     Eurotech Honda         +4.321s
 4.  Gordon Shedden    Honda                  +8.484s
 5.  Dave Newsham      Speedworks Toyota     +11.769s
 6.  Jason Plato       MG                    +19.061s
 7.  Sam Tordoff       MG                    +19.320s
 8.  Nick Foster       WSR BMW               +23.463s
 9.  Aron Smith        Motorbase Ford        +27.357s
10.  Jeff Smith        Eurotech Honda        +38.946s
11.  Rob Austin        Austin Audi           +40.430s
12.  Tom Onslow-Cole   Hard VW               +42.739s
13.  Mat Jackson       Motorbase Ford        +42.879s
14.  Rob Collard       WSR BMW               +56.152s
15.  James Cole        Hard Vauxhall       +1m02.864s
16.  Lea Wood          Wood Vauxhall       +1m21.965s*

Retirements:

     James Kaye        AmD VW                 12 laps*
     Jack Goff         Hard Vauxhall           9 laps
     Adam Morgan       Ciceley Toyota          4 laps
     Jake Hill         Motorbase Ford          2 laps*
     Daniel Welch      Welch Proton            2 laps
     David Nye         Welch Ford               1 lap*
     Will Bratt        Austin Audi              1 lap
     Ollie Jackson     Speedworks Toyota        1 lap
     Michael Caine     Motorbase Ford          0 laps*
     Frank Wrathall    Dynojet Toyota          0 laps

* S2000

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