Champion Neal wins race two

Neal scythed from fourth on the grid to take the lead from teammate and race one winner Gareth Howell on the second lap of the race.

The race was red flagged following a lengthy safety car period after Mike Jordan was pitched into the wall at Woodcote after Jason Plato's SEAT slowed in front of him with a driveshaft failure.

The accident also took James Thompson out of the race, after Plato was pitched into him when Jordan collected him.

The race was restarted in race order, with Neal lining up alongside Howell, the third Team Dynamics Honda Integra-R of Gordon Shedden.

Neal held the lead off the line, although the fast-starting Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch of Gavin Smith leaped into contention from fourth on the grid.

Although Shedden was seemingly quicker than Neal, who was carrying 18kg more ballast than his teammate, Shedden was unable to find a way past and was instead forced to spend much of the second half of the race deflecting the attentions of Fabrizio Giovanardi's Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch.

Giovanardi had forced his way past Smith, but despite spending much of the race attached to Shedden's rear bumper had to settle for third.

Smith held off Rob Collard - who had restarted at the back of the field after losing his rear bumper in the first part of the race - and Howell for an impressive fourth place despite battling against the after-effects of his sizeable shunt at Brands Hatch in the previous round of the championship.

Tom Ferrier, making his first BTCC appearance for five years, was an impressive seventh in Motorbase Performance's SEAT Cupra Toledo, with Paul O'Neill picking up Tech-Speed Motorsport's best finish of the season in eighth.

Jason Hughes narrowly held of SEAT's Darren Turner - delayed by a clutch problem - for ninth, with Colin Turkington finishing 11th despite sustaining front-end damage in the first part of the race.

Hughes will start this afternoon's final race from pole position, sharing the front row with O'Neill.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver            Make        Time
 1.  Matt Neal         Honda       14:27.047
 2.  Gordon Shedden    Honda       +   0.452
 3.  F.Giovanardi      Vauxhall    +   0.700
 4.  Gavin Smith       Vauxhall    +   2.705
 5.  Rob Collard       MG          +   2.883
 6.  Gareth Howell     Honda       +   3.363
 7.  Tom Ferrier       SEAT        +   8.894
 8.  Paul O'Neill      Vauxhall    +  15.185
 9.  Jason Hughes      MG          +  16.883
10.  Darren Turner     SEAT        +  17.024
11.  Colin Turkington  MG          +  20.406
12.  David Pinkney     Honda       +  22.248
13.  Richard Marsh     Peugeot     +  37.225
14.  Mark Smith        Alfa Romeo  +  38.355
15.  Darren Dowling    Lexus       +  41.794
16.  Nick Leason       Vauxhall    +  51.142
17.  Chris Stockton    Lexus       +  52.023

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver            Make          Lap
     Mark Jones        Lexus          5
     Martyn Bell       BMW            4
     Jason Plato       SEAT           0
     Tom Chilton       Vauxhall       0
     James Thompson    SEAT           0
     Mike Jordan       Honda          0
     James Kaye        Honda          0