Jackson wins third Thruxton race

Jackson, who started from the front row in his RML Chevrolet, led into the first corner and was never headed on the way to victory.

The key point of the race was the restart with four laps to go after the safety car had spent a lengthy spell on the track as marshals cleared away the wreckage of a crash by John George.

Jackson nailed the throttle hard through the chicane, pulling a gap of over a second to Paul O'Neill's Tech-Speed Honda and pulling away to take the chequered flag by over two seconds.

Polesitter O'Neill, who passed Adam Jones for second early in the race, had been catching Jackson at a rate of almost half a second a lap before the safety car came out.

His race was run just a lap and a half after the restart though as he sustained a left-front puncture, promoting the Jones SEAT to second - the first podium finish for the Clyde Valley Racing squad.

Third place went to series returnee James Thompson, who successfully held off a long train of cars for virtually the entire race distance in his Team Dynamics Honda.

Thompson, in fact, had a major bearing on the occupants of the next few places. In holding off Matt Neal, he forced the championship leader wide at Seagrave and allowed Jason Plato, Rob Collard and Stephen Jelley to pass him on the last lap, relegating the Vauxhall to seventh at the flag.

With Colin Turkington only ninth, Neal's lead at the top of the championship stands at an increased eight points over the WSR BMW driver.

Team Dynamics driver David Pinkney picked up his first points of the season in tenth, while Dan Eaves's day failed to get any better, the Clyde Valley becoming airbourne in a clash with Tom Chilton's Arena Ford that put both cars out.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Mat Jackson          Chevrolet  28m44.716s
 2.  Adam Jones           SEAT       +   1.267s
 3.  James Thompson       Honda      +   3.646s
 4.  Jason Plato          Chevrolet  +   4.008s
 5.  Rob Collard          BMW        +   5.056s
 6.  Stephen Jelley       BMW        +   5.160s
 7.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall   +   5.420s
 8.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall   +   5.875s
 9.  Colin Turkington     BMW        +   6.116s
10.  David Pinkney        Honda      +   6.475s
11.  Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet  +   6.861s
12.  Jonathan Adam        BMW        +  13.201s
13.  Martyn Bell          Honda      +  14.918s
14.  Martin Johnson       Vauxhall   +  28.102s
15.  Nick Leason          BMW        +  30.795s
16.  Andrew Jordan        Vauxhall   +1m03.494s
17.  Liam McMillan        SEAT       +    1 lap
18.  Paul O'Neill         Honda      +   2 laps

Retirements:

    John George          Honda      8 laps
    Alan Morrison        Ford       6 laps
    Tom Chilton          Ford       4 laps
    Dan Eaves            SEAT       4 laps