Neal wins lively third race at Oulton

The Honda driver started eighth on the grid, but a combination of some well-judged passing moves and the misfortune of some of his rivals paved his way to the front.

Neal's win, his third of the year, gives him an eight-point lead over Jason Plato, who had led the standings after race two.

Polesitter Alex MacDowall led the opening three laps, but retired when his Chevrolet slowed to a halt at Knickerbrook.

That handed the advantage to Tom Boardman, but the Special Tuning UK SEAT driver was overtaken by Tom Chilton's Arena Ford at Old Hall on lap nine.

Chilton's lead lasted just one more corner as he held a massive tankslapper at Cascades, but lost four places as a result.

That turned the lead battle into a fight between Boardman and Neal, and the Honda man got ahead at Lodge on lap 14 as he dived inside the black machine.

Boardman retired half a lap later with a broken right-front wheel, possibly as a result of contact with Neal during the passing move.

Neal was followed through the field by Steven Kane's Motorbase BMW, which finished half a second behind him, and by James Nash, who took his first podium finish of the year in his Triple 8 Vauxhall.

Chilton held on to his fourth place ahead of his team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole and Plato's Chevrolet.

Mat Jackson was seventh for Motorbase and Paul O'Neill, who did not make the start of either of the first two races, looked on course for eighth after a good fight up from the back of the field.

The Tech-Speed Honda driver ran wide at Cascades on the final lap though and dropped to 10th as the WSR BMWs of Rob Collard and Andy Neate flew by.

Pos Driver             Car                Time/Gap
 1. Matt Neal          Honda            29m17.935s
 2. Steven Kane        BMW                  +0.282
 3. James Nash         Vauxhall             +1.321
 4. Tom Chilton        Ford                 +2.109
 5. Tom Onslow-Cole    Ford                 +2.493
 6. Jason Plato        Chevrolet            +3.919
 7. Mat Jackson        BMW                  +4.376
 8. Rob Collard        BMW                  +5.248
 9. Andy Neate         BMW                  +6.185
10. Paul O'Neill       Honda                +8.146
11. Gordon Shedden     Honda               +15.452
12. David Pinkney      Vauxhall            +21.554
13. Lea Wood           Honda               +22.097
14. Matthew Hamilton   Honda               +31.740
15. Martin Johnson     Vauxhall            +39.013
16. Arthur Forster     BMW                  +1 lap

Not classified

    Shaun Hollamby     Volkswagen          16 laps
    Tom Boardman       SEAT                14 laps
    Andrew Jordan      Vauxhall            10 laps
    Alex MacDowall     Chevrolet            3 laps
    Martin Depper      BMW                  0 laps