Neal triumphs in Thruxton race two
Matt Neal maintained his record of winning at least once at each of the British Touring Car rounds of 2011 by taking victory in race two at Thruxton this afternoon
Neal's Honda Racing team-mate Gordon Shedden, who won race one, led initially. But with 45kg of ballast, compared to Neal's 36kg, Shedden was soon struggling and Neal slipped by into Church on lap six. He then drew away to his third victory of the season.
"For the opening six or seven laps it was on fire," said Neal. "The car was really hooked up. I was desperate to get past 'Flash' [Shedden]."
After Neal went by, the Eurotech Racing Vauxhall Vectra Andrew Jordan moved forward to challenge Shedden.
An aggressive charge over the Club chicane kerbs on lap 10 gave Jordan a run on the Honda and allowed him into second. He pulled clear, but was still over two seconds behind Neal at the flag.
Shedden then withstood pressure from Tom Chilton's Arena Motorsport Ford Focus to secure the final place on the podium.
Mat Jackson took fifth, but the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus driver had to get defensive to hold off the challenge of James Nash's Triple 8 Engineering Vauxhall Vectra.
A fast-starting Rob Collard (WSR BMW) had run seventh early on, but he was removed by the RML Chevrolet Cruze of Alex Macdowall at the chicane. MacDowall therefore took seventh and was first normally aspirated car home.
MacDowall's team-mate, reigning champion Jason Plato, stormed from 19th (due to his race-one crash) to eighth.
Results - 16 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Matt Neal Honda 21m33.457s
2. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Vauxhall + 2.126s
3. Gordon Shedden Honda + 3.289s
4. Tom Chilton Arena Ford + 3.694s
5. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford + 4.749s
6. James Nash Triple 8 Vauxhall + 4.809s
7. Alex MacDowall Chevrolet + 5.928s
8. Jason Plato Chevrolet + 7.462s
9. Tom Boardman Special Tuning SEAT + 11.196s
10. Tony Gilham Triple 8 Vauxhall + 11.405s
11. Paul O'Neill Tech-Speed Chevrolet + 12.166s
12. Jeff Smith Eurotech Vauxhall + 18.882s
13. Andy Neate Arena Ford + 19.166s
14. Rob Collard WSR BMW + 32.218s
15. John George Tech-Speed Chevrolet + 35.764s
16. Nick Foster WSR BMW + 35.938s
17. Liam Griffin Motorbase Ford + 56.715s
Retirements:
Chris James ES Chevrolet 3 laps
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