Feature Race: Thommo wins through

Due to the punctures sustained by many in the Sprint Race, the race distance of the Feature Race was shortened to 20 laps (a 5-lap reduction) and a cone placed at Dingle Dell to stop the cars from using the kerb which has caused all the problems.

Poleman Muller once again led away from the rolling start followed by Sprint Race winner Matt Neal who was carrying an extra 42kg success ballast. Daniel Eaves was third while Warren Hughes made another fantastic to start and found himself fourth on the run up to Druids.

Just behind them, Tim Harvey got a run up the inside of Paul O'Neill who had made a bad start from fourth on the grid. The Egg Sport Astra moved over to take his line and Harvey clipped him into a wild spin which ended hard in the barrier. This prompted David Leslie's Proton to move in avoidance and the Scot clipped Tom Chilton who also shunted out.

Harvey was convinced that he had done nothing wrong afterwards: "I actually was alongside coming out of Paddock and it seemed to me that he looked in his mirrors and then came across. I definitely had a right to be there. The problem is when these things happen you tend to back off and that usually makes the other guy's momentum worse when they're spinning and that's what happened."

The Safety Car came out for four laps while the mess was cleared up meaning that the race would run to its maximum 25 lap distance after all.

Eaves, running second at the restart went wide at Graham Hill bend when his power-steering pump failed. The problem would force him to pit and lose two laps but before that he was passed by Harvey, Matt Neal (dropping back with too conservative a set-up) Warren Hughes, Anthony Reid and James Thompson who had flown up the field from his 14th placed starting position.

Muller pitted from the lead at the end of lap nine and handed the lead to Harvey who ran comfortably with the works cars at this point. Meanwhile, just behind, Hughes tried to pass Neal for second into Druids but got caught out by a brake balance problem he had endured all weekend, and both drivers were held up in the ensuing lock-up.

This brake problem would catch Hughes out again when it was time for his pit-stop, the Geordie locked up on the pit lane entrance and was forced to keep going until after Reid had pitted. But before Hughes could pit there was another Saftey Car period to recover Spencer Marsh's crashed Production Class Honda Accord from Druids. Hughes was leading, most of the Touring Class having already pitted, from Aaron Slight, Thompson, Muller, Harvey and Reid.

When the Safety Car period ended on lap 16, Hughes immediately pitted releasing Thompson and Muller and condemning himself to an eventual eighth place.

Muller pushed Thompson hard for about a lap and a half before giving best and falling in behind the Englishman. Neal slotted back into fourth when Harvey pitted for a drive-though penalty, after speeding in the pit lane, but could do nothing about third-placed Reid who was actually running quicker than the works Vauxhalls towards the end of the race.

Andy Priaulx finished fifth after a late-race dice with Phil Bennett's Proton, the Guernseyman benefitting from a novel approach to the Honda's recurrent power-steering problem. "After the first race we decided to strap two power steering units together," he said. "So when I pitted we simply unplugged one unit and plugged in another."

Rob Collard led all the way in the Production Class, and once Mark Thomas has clashed with Tom Boardman for second, it was pretty easy for the Renault Clio driver.

The feared repeat of the punctures that tore the field apart in the first race, meanwhile, failed to materialise.


1 James Thompson (works Vauxhall Astra) 45m20.934s
2 Yvan Muller (works Vauxhall Astra) +2.294s
3 Anthony Reid (MG ZS) +3.303s
4 Matt Neal (Egg Vauxhall Astra) +4.050s
5 Andy Priaulx (Honda Civic) +10.322s
6 Phil Bennett (Proton Impian) +11.728s


1 Rob Collard (Renault Clio) +57.845s
2 Tom Boardman (BMW 320i) +1m02.323s
3 Graham Saunders (Alfa Romeo 156) +1m04.822s