Jackson wins race three at Croft

Jackson's Motorbase Ford Focus powered past the WSR BMW of series rookie and polesitter Nick Foster on the run to Tower on lap one. For a while he looked safe, but Foster and team-mate Rob Collard, up from sixth, were never far behind.

Collard looked faster than Foster and, after initially fighting, Foster allowed his colleague to slip by into the complex with five laps to go.

Collard closed right up to Jackson but, despite being much faster in the final twisty section, could not find a way by the Focus. On the final run to the line, Collard allowed Foster through to give his team-mate his best BTCC result so far.

Gordon Shedden's Honda Civic had run fourth early on, but he again hit tyre problems and was easily overcome by Andrew Jordan's Eurotech Racing Vauxhall Vectra in the closing stages.

The Honda also fell behind the Triple 8 Vectra of James Nash, who completed a feisty drive up from row six, on the final lap.

Shedden was therefore sixth, just ahead of Alex MacDowall (Chevrolet), who finished off a fine drive from 16th on the grid by passing Matt Neal's Honda on the final tour.

Reigning champion Jason Plato started on row 10 after a cv joint failure in race two and could only climb as high as 11th.

Results - 15 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car                 Time/Gap
 1.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford         22m10.663s
 2.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW                  + 0.638s
 3.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW                  + 0.922s
 4.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall       + 10.909s
 5.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall       + 12.269s
 6.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                   + 14.866s
 7.  Matt Neal        Honda                   + 15.915s
 8.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet               + 16.512s
 9.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford              + 21.112s
10.  Dave Newsham     Special Tuning SEAT     + 21.855s
11.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet               + 31.066s
12.  Tony Gilham      Triple 8 Vauxhall       + 34.691s
13.  Tom Onslow-Cole  Arena Ford              + 38.211s
14.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall       + 38.359s
15.  Shaun Hollamby   AmD Volkswagen          + 45.095s
16.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford          + 54.858s
17.  John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet  + 1m01.548s
18.  Chris James      ES Chevrolet          + 1m02.209s
19.  Lea Wood         Central Honda         + 1m19.308s

Retirements:

     Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet      13 laps
     Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT       10 laps
     Rob Austin       Austin Audi                5 laps
     Andy Neate       Arena Ford                 5 laps
     Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota             1 laps