Matt Neal wins opening BTCC race at Croft

The champion had to battle ahead of the fast-starting Andrew Jordan (Eurotech Honda) and the fellow factory Honda of Gordon Shedden to assert himself at the head of the pack on lap 12.

Rob Collard's WSR BMW shadowed Neal up the order and ran in the wheel tracks of the Civic, finishing just under half a second behind.

"I could see Collard following me and I knew I had to push on," said Neal. "I had a chat with the team on the radio and they said I should go for it. After all, we are all in this championship as individuals as well as a team."

Shedden dropped away from the top two with tyre problems in his fully-ballasted Civic but managed to hang on to his third place position after 18 laps.

Behind Jordan, Rob Austin equalled his best finish of the season on his return to action in the rear-wheel drive RAR Audi A4 by taking fifth place. He earned that by battling ahead of Andy Neate's Triple Eight Race Engineering MG6 late on in the race.

Championship challenger Jason Plato in the other MG6, who had qualified sixth, failed to take the start when the electrics failed on his hatchback. He rejoined for a handful of laps in a reworked car but was out of the points-paying positions when the flag fell.

Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Driver           Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Matt Neal        Honda               28m55.451s
 2.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW               + 0.401s
 3.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                 + 4.923s
 4.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Honda       + 12.910s
 5.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi          + 22.538s
 6.  Andy Neate       MG                   + 27.387s
 7.  Tom Onslow-Cole  WSR BMW              + 30.639s
 8.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford       + 30.972s
 9.  Will Bratt       Austin Audi          + 37.738s
10.  Aron Smith       Motorbase Ford       + 50.725s
11.  Ollie Jackson    AmD Volkswagen       + 52.965s
12.  Tony Gilham      Gilham Honda         + 54.104s
13.  Lea Wood         Central Vauxhall   + 1m03.042s
14.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford     + 1m04.487s
15.  Adam Morgan      Speedworks Toyota  + 1m09.972s
16.  Chris James      ES Vauxhall        + 1m14.503s
17.  Paul O'Neill     Speedworks Toyota      + 1 lap
18.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW               + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota         13 laps
     Jason Plato      MG                     10 laps
     Jeff Smith       Eurotech Honda          9 laps
     Daniel Welch     Welch Proton            3 laps
     Dave Newsham     ES Vauxhall             0 laps