Mondello Sprint: Neal wins

"I'm over the moon," said Neal. "I needed that. For the past couple of years I've won one race a year and I was worried that my Brands win was going to turn out to be the only one again." The lanky Midlander now has a narrow points lead over James Thompson.

Neal had run in fifth place in the early laps after a slow start from his team-mate Paul O'Neill delayed him off the line and let David Leslie's Proton ahead. After four laps, Neal moved past Leslie into fourth place at Sport Ireland corner and on lap seven did the same to impressive third-place runner Gareth Howell in the same place.

Next on the shopping list was James Thompson who was troubled by a gearbox which was jumping out of fifth gear on the straight and immediately selecting lower gears at random. Thompson decided to let Neal past and soon after Muller pulled off and the safety car was deployed after a production class shunt. When it came back in, the field managed just one lap before it was out again and then there was eventually just a three-lap sprint to the flag.

Muller was his usual stoical self after yet another desperate piece of bad luck. "There are some years when it's like that," he said, "but what can I do but try to stay motivated."

Neal went on to win from Thompson who admitted: "There's a tinge of disappointment with my own decision, because as it turned out if I'd decided to be defensive and try to keep Matt back, there would only have been a couple of laps to survive. But I'm really pleased that it survived without packing up completely, because it was buzzing the engine all the time. I was expecting to see valves flying."

Howell's great run in third place didn't continue either. An air intake fault meant his engine kept losing power and with two laps to go that happened at Paddock and the following Paul O'Neill (who'd barged past Leslie just before the safety car came out) couldn't entirely avoid him. Howell struggled on but didn't quite make the flag. O'Neill did, but behind Leslie, who'd pounced as the youngsters got together. "Ace," was the Scot's verdict on Proton's third podium.

Anthony Reid emerged in fifth from a frantic bash-fest, led early in the race by Team Halfords Peugeot man Tim Harvey and Reid's works MG team-mate Warren Hughes - who no longer have the greatest respect for each other. "Harvey's a loose cannon, all my gripes are about him. He sideswiped me three times," said Hughes. "They were driving like it's a war," retorted Harvey. "I don't think MG wanted us to be there. I took six hits from Hughes." Andy Priaulx stayed out of much of the trouble to bring the Honda home in sixth place ahead of Harvey.

Norman Simon looked to be well on his way to a comfortable BTC production win until the safety car came out. The German had built a massive lead in his BMW as the rest of the pack queued up behind Peter Cate's Honda Accord, which later retired with brake failure. The two quickest cars in the field - Gavin Pyper's Alfa 156 and James Kaye's Honda Civic were working their way up from the back of the grid after qualifying dramas.

On the re-start Pyper was right behind Simon and looking for a way past, when Simon spun off. "That was nice," admitted Pyper, who went on to get the best of a battle for the win with Kaye. Gearbox problems slowed Kaye out of the final corner and dropped him to third behind Tom Boardman in the second Edenbridge BMW.


Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 41m50.927s 62.39mph
James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 41m51.450s 62.38mph
David Leslie (Proton Impian) 41m55.447s 62.28mph
Paul O'Neill (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 41m57.683s 62.22mph
Anthony Reid (MG ZS) 41m59.879s 62.17mph
Andy Priaulx (Honda Civic Type-R) 42m00.083s 62.16mph
Tim Harvey (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 42m00.677s 62.15mph
Phil Bennett (Proton Impian) 42m02.844s 62.10mph
Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 42m03.380s 62.08mph
Warren Hughes (MG ZS) 42m05.730s 62.03mph