Jackson takes race three at Brands

Jackson, who started the race with wet tyres on his Motorbase BMW, held off a determined late effort from Matt Neal, who had a mixture of slick and wet rubber on his Honda, and came home the victor by just half a second.

Like Jackson, who rocketed up from 12th to third on the opening lap, all the early front-runners had full wets on their cars.

Tom Boardman shot into an early lead in his Special Tuning UK SEAT, but Motorbase drivers Steven Kane and Jackson clung on to him like glue.

A failed attempt by Kane to wrest the lead allowed Jackson to pass both at Westfield on lap three, although all three were unlucky to twice lose huge advantages over the rest of the pack due to the safety car being deployed twice.

The second safety car period was caused when Tom Chilton fired Alex MacDowall off at Paddock, breaking the right rear wheel on the Chevrolet, and then when David Pinkney, who had been battling for fifth place, understeered off at the very next corner.

That allowed Neal, who had climbed to sixth, to close in on the pack with four laps to go. Once back under racing conditions, and with his tyre choice now clearly the one to have, Neal passed Boardman, James Nash and Rob Collard to start the final lap third.

He then got inside Kane for second at Sheene, but could not get by Jackson in the following two turns that remained. Nevertheless, with Jason Plato retiring early on, Neal now shares the lead of the championship with the Chevrolet driver.

Collard (WSR BMW) came home fourth behind Kane, and ahead of Andrew Jordan, who passed two cars brilliantly himself in the final two laps in his Eurotech Vauxhall.

Tom Chilton, another to go for a mixture of tyres, came from the back of the grid to finish sixth, while Nash (Triple 8 Vauxhall) and Boardman were next up.

There was heartache for Lea Wood, who lost ninth place on the final lap in his family-run Honda, dropping to 11th as Gordon Shedden and Tom Onslow-Cole, the only two men left running who had started on full slicks, passed him.

Pos  Driver           Car          Time/Gap
 1.  Mat Jackson      BMW        32m50.721s
 2.  Matt Neal        Honda        + 0.469s
 3.  Steven Kane      BMW          + 1.708s
 4.  Rob Collard      BMW          + 5.043s
 5.  Andrew Jordan    Vauxhall     + 7.838s
 6.  Tom Chilton      Ford        + 11.297s
 7.  James Nash       Vauxhall    + 14.136s
 8.  Tom Boardman     SEAT        + 18.442s
 9.  Gordon Shedden   Honda       + 19.379s
10.  Tom Onslow-Cole  Ford        + 19.384s
11.  Lea Wood         Honda       + 21.822s
12.  Matt Hamilton    Honda       + 23.700s
13.  Andy Neate       BMW         + 27.392s
14.  Martin Depper    BMW         + 41.831s
15.  Arthur Forster   BMW          + 2 laps

Retirements:

     David Pinkney    Vauxhall   10 laps
     Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet  10 laps
     Paul O'Neill     Honda      0 laps
     John George      Honda      0 laps
     Jason Plato      Chevrolet  0 laps