Giovanardi wins Thruxton race one

The Vauxhall driver started from pole position in his Vectra and, despite his 1.5 second lead being eroded thanks to the appearance of the safety car at mid-distance, he was able to reassert his advantage over Matt Neal to win by just under half a second.

Behind Neal, who maintained his 100 per cent record of podium finishes this year, Andrew Jordan came home third to make it a one-two-three finish for Vauxhall, five years and a day after it last locked out the podium.

Jordan was forced to hold off a determined assault from Colin Turkington, who stayed on his tail all race long and finished as the best independent driver in fourth in his WSR BMW, one place ahead of the Tech-Speed Honda of the brilliant Paul O'Neill.

Adam Jones came through to sixth in his Clyde Valley Racing SEAT after winning a superb battle with James Thompson's Team Dynamics Honda.

After being passed by Jones, Thompson held up a train of cars including Rob Collard and Stephen Jelley.

The WSR BMW made it past on the inside at the chicane on the penultimate lap, just as Collard's Motorbase machine was doing likewise on the outside. The result was contact as the three tried to go around together, putting Collard in the barriers.

Jelley finished seventh ahead of the Chevrolets of Mat Jackson (RML) and Harry Vaulkhard (Tempus Sport). Jason Plato's RML-run car had been running fourth early on, but he pitted for new front tyres after a feeling a vibration in his car. He finished 10th.

The second CVR SEAT of Dan Eaves failed to take the start due to a broken steering rack sustained when he spun and hit a barrier on his out-lap.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall   25m16.248s
 2.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall    +  0.404s
 3.  Andrew Jordan        Vauxhall    +  1.013s
 4.  Colin Turkington     BMW         +  1.523s
 5.  Paul O'Neill         Honda       +  2.620s
 6.  Adam Jones           SEAT        +  6.841s
 7.  Stephen Jelley       BMW         +  7.904s
 8.  Mat Jackson          Chevrolet   + 10.457s
 9.  Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet   + 11.072s
10.  Jason Plato          Chevrolet   + 12.323s
11.  James Thompson       Honda       + 12.479s
12.  Jonathan Adam        BMW         + 14.141s
13.  Martyn Bell          Honda       + 16.411s
14.  David Pinkney        Honda       + 17.858s
15.  Tom Chilton          Ford        + 20.472s
16.  Martin Johnson       Vauxhall    + 25.257s
17.  Rob Collard          BMW         + 25.911s
18.  John George          Honda       +   1 lap

Not classified:

     Nick Leason          BMW         10 laps
     Alan Morrison        Ford        6 laps
     Liam McMillan        SEAT        4 laps
     Dan Eaves            SEAT        0 laps