Neal wins Croft race two

Neal, who started third, slipped ahead of race one runner-up James Thompson's SEAT off the line to assume second place. He then spent the next 14 laps stalking Plato, challenging several times at Tower, before pouncing with a late kerb-rattling move at the hairpin.

Plato, running with maximum success ballast after his race one victory, could do nothing to respond, and was forced to settle for the runner-up spot.

Colin Turkington bagged third place for WSR on the final lap when Thompson dropped ran wide at Sunny, with Neal's Team Dynamics team-mate Gordon Shedden charging through from the back of the grid to fourth.

Thompson almost lost sixth place to the Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch of Gavin Smith, whose last corner lunge only failed to come off by 0.012 seconds. This earned Smith pole position for the third race after his number was drawn for the reverse grid.

Smith's Vauxhall team-mate, former European Touring Car champion Fabrizio Giovanardi, fared less well, retiring in the early stages after being taken out by the second WSR MG ZS of Rob Collard on lap four. The move put both out of the race, and earned Collard his second licence endorsement of the season.

James Kaye claimed seventh place for Synchro Motorsport ahead of David Pinkney's Motorbase Performance-run Honda Integra-R, with the third Vauxhall of Tom Chilton coming through from the back of the grid to take ninth.

The final point went to Eurotech Racing's Mike Jordan, who muscled his way past Eoin Murray's Team Quest Alfa Romeo 156 at Sunny to earn tenth place.

Results

Pos  Driver               Make                  Time
 1.  Matt Neal            Honda Integra    22:10.791
 2.  Jason Plato          SEAT Leon       +    0.966
 3.  Colin Turkington     MG ZS           +    6.055
 4.  Gordon Shedden       Honda Integra   +    6.747
 5.  James Thompson       SEAT Leon       +    7.886
 6.  Gavin Smith          Vauxhall Astra  +    7.898
 7.  James Kaye           Honda Civic     +   13.382
 8.  Tom Chilton          Vauxhall Astra  +   16.084
 9.  David Pinkney        Honda Integra   +   20.326
10.  Mike Jordan          Honda Integra   +   22.974
11.  Eoin Murray          Alfa Romeo 156  +   26.976
12.  Jason Hughes         MG ZS           +   35.149
13.  Adam Jones           Lexus IS200     +   37.128
14.  Mark Proctor         Honda Civic     +   40.082
15.  Martyn Bell          BMW 320i E46    +   46.062
16.  Fiona Leggate        Vauxhall Astra  +   46.666
17.  Mark Smith           Alfa Romeo 156  + 1:10.683

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall Astra    D.N.F.
     Robert Collard       MG ZS             D.N.F.
     Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall Astra    D.N.F.