Neal on top in second session

Reigning champion Jason Plato set the pace for much of the session before a late charge from Neal and Plato's works Chevrolet team-mate Alex MacDowall demoted him to third.

Neal's effort came despite steering and turbo boost control issues early on. He nevertheless expects to struggle in qualifying this afternoon thanks to 45kg of success ballast.

"The car feels really good, but it's difficult to know because I think other people will go quicker," he said. "If I can get on the second row in qualifying I'll be chuffed."

Behind the top three, Paul O'Neill showed improved pace to take fourth in Tech-Speed's non-turbo Chevrolet Cruze.

Andrew Jordan maintained his competitive form with fifth in Eurotech/Pirtek Racing's Vauxhall Vectra, while Gordon Shedden's Honda Civic was sixth. He still has the quickest time of the weekend so far, however, thanks to his 1m27.558s lap in first practice.

Pos  Driver           Team/Car              Time       Gap
 1.  Matt Neal        Honda                 1m27.917s
 2.  Alex MacDowall   Chevrolet             1m28.115s  + 0.198s
 3.  Jason Plato      Chevrolet             1m28.252s  + 0.335s
 4.  Paul O'Neill     Tech-Speed Chevrolet  1m28.284s  + 0.367s
 5.  Andrew Jordan    Eurotech Vauxhall     1m28.454s  + 0.537s
 6.  Gordon Shedden   Honda                 1m28.467s  + 0.550s
 7.  Rob Collard      WSR BMW               1m28.531s  + 0.614s
 8.  Mat Jackson      Motorbase Ford        1m28.546s  + 0.629s
 9.  Tom Boardman     Special Tuning SEAT   1m28.609s  + 0.692s
10.  Tom Chilton      Arena Ford            1m28.714s  + 0.797s
11.  James Nash       Triple 8 Vauxhall     1m28.802s  + 0.885s
12.  Andy Neate       Arena Ford            1m28.864s  + 0.947s
13.  Liam Griffin     Motorbase Ford        1m29.041s  + 1.124s
14.  Nick Foster      WSR BMW               1m29.322s  + 1.405s
15.  Dave Newsham     Special Tuning SEAT   1m29.334s  + 1.417s
16.  Tony Gilham      Triple 8 Vauxhall     1m29.355s  + 1.438s
17.  Tom Onslow-Cole  AmD Volkswagen        1m29.688s  + 1.771s
18.  Jeff Smith       Eurotech Vauxhall     1m29.767s  + 1.850s
19.  John George      Tech-Speed Chevrolet  1m29.961s  + 2.044s
20.  Rob Austin       Austin Audi           1m30.548s  + 2.631s
21.  Chris James      ES Chevrolet          1m31.343s  + 3.426s
22.  Tony Hughes      Speedworks Toyota     1m32.030s  + 4.113s
23.  Frank Wrathall   Dynojet Toyota
24.  Lea Wood         Central Honda