Silverstone sprint race: Bennett breaks duck

The Egg Sport Vauxhall Astra Coupe driver converted his pole position into an early race lead and drove off into the distance, his only worry being working his way through the close battles in the Production class field.

"It's more of a relief than anything," sighed the grey-headed Midlander. "Hopefully this will take the pressure off me. The 60kg advantage [on success ballast] does count for a bit, but I focused on keeping everything nice and neat, and with the other cars battling that helped my cause."

The official works Vauxhalls of Jason Plato and Yvan Muller had a hectic scrap in the early laps, with James Thompson (in the second Egg car) and the Peugeot of Steve Soper hard on their rear bumpers.

Muller had muffed his start when he was caught unawares and still had the car in neutral when the red light came on, then the Astra dropped into neutral again as he entered Copse. But he recovered and, when Plato got a slide on at Priory on the second lap, Muller was able to surge ahead into second at Brooklands.

Plato drew alongside at Bridge one lap later, but then concentrated on playing tailgunner to Muller and working with his French team mate to pull clear of Thompson.

"I'm dead pleased for Phil," emphasised Plato. "The criticism he's had is the same as I got in my first year in the BTCC. I was the pinball wizard then!"

Thompson had a subdued run to fourth, losing Soper from his mirrors when the Peugeot had a spin at Becketts before pitting for new tyres.

That promoted the second Peugeot of Dan Eaves to fifth. He had worked ahead of Anthony Reid's MG when he clattered into the Scot at Abbey, forcing Reid to go straight on. Shortly after that, Eaves and the Lexus of Thomas Erdos clashed at Becketts and, as the recovering Reid tried to pass both, he made contact with the Brazilian and was knocked into a half-spin. That dropped him to the tail of the field, but he recovered to sixth ahead of Erdos, who had a damaged rear wing.

Mark Blair drove well to outpace JSM Alfa team mate Tim Harvey for eighth, although he blotted his copybook by punting the other MG of Warren Hughes off at Priory.

Soper, Reid and Hughes had all been forced to the back of the grid for engine 'changes', although in the MGs' cases, that only amounted to a breaking of the seals.

In the Production class, polesitter Roger Moen got too much wheelspin off the line and was swamped into Copse Corner by the Honda of Simon Graves. But the Norwegian recovered and passed Graves for the lead into Becketts on the fourth lap.

From then on Moen pulled clear, while HTML Peugeot team mate Simon Harrison stormed through from the back of the grid to a brilliant second. Last man he had to pass was another Peugeot, that of Tom Boardman, who after fuel system problems all season suddenly had a chance to show his potential and grabbed his first podium finish.

Graves dropped to fourth behind Boardman and Harrison with a moment at Becketts, then coasted into retirement on the last lap so as not to pick up success ballast, a tactic which will enable him to better support Barwell Honda team-mate James Kaye's title bid. Kaye himself went out when he spun off at Priory after fluid from the powersteering system spilled onto his rear tyres.

Front row hero Paul O'Neill pitted at the end of lap one before reappearing later in the race for a couple of reconnaissance laps.


1 Phil Bennett (Egg Sport Vauxhall Astra Coupe, 16 laps in 23m26.548s
2 Yvan Muller (Vauxhall Astra Coupe), 23m28.731s
3 Jason Plato (Vauxhall Astra Coupe)s 23m31.625s
4 James Thompson (Egg Sport Vauxhall Astra Coupe), 23m33.620s
5 Dan Eaves (Peugeot 406 Coupe), 23m50.935s
6 Anthony Reid (MG ZS), 23m56.550s
7 Thomas Erdos (TMSR Lexus IS200), 23m59.648s
8 Mark Blair (JSM Alfa Romeo 147), 24m00.525s
9 Tim Harvey (JSM Alfa Romeo 147), 24m08.639s
10 Steve Soper (Peugeot 406 Coupe), 24m32.459s
Fastest lap: Bennett 1m28.436s

1 Roger Moen (HTML Peugeot 306), 15 laps in 23m38.516s
2 Simon Harrison (HTML Peugeot 306), 23m39.571s
3 Tom Boardman (TBR Peugeot 306), 23m41.145s
4 Mat Jackson (GR Ford Focus), 23m49.308s
5 Gavin Pyper (GA Janspeed Alfa Romeo 156), 23m49.767s
6 Robert Collard (Collard Renault Clio), 23m51.216s
Fastest lap: Harrison 1m32.592s