Sprint race: Thommo's smash 'n' grab

"It was a good clean scrap," claimed Thompson. "The contact was just one of those things." Muller was actually more upset at being held up by a BTCProduction car he was lapping - which made him more vulnerable to fastest lap-setter Thompson's challenge, than he was about the contact itself.

The Frenchman had led a way from pole, and at one stage opened up something of a gap to Thompson, before the Yorkshireman hunted him down in traffic and a full-on fight for the lead began which ran to within three laps of the chequered flag.

Matt Neal inherited second place, crossing the line a fraction ahead of Anthony Reid's MG ZS after a race-long battle. Reid had challenged Thompson for second place in the early running and over the opening laps had managed to stay in touch with the top two Astra works drivers.

A major moment at Church (135mph-plus in a touring car) compromised Reid's race though. "I was completely sideways," he admitted. "It was just a question of which way he went off," confirmed the closely following Neal. "Somehow he held it, but I had the run on him down to Club." That gave Neal second, though Reid hounded him to the flag.

Andy Priaulx was a very promising fourth in the Honda. He'd lost the top four on the first lap, when Warren Hughes spun at the Complex and everyone behind Neal was delayed. Thereafter though Priaulx ran strong and hard on his own to the end.

Tim Harvey got the best of a hectic mid-field scrap to be fifth. He battled hard early on with Colin Turkington's MG, until the ZS shed a rear wheel at Goodwood. Aaron Slight then passed Harvey's Peugeot, but Harvey and team-mate Dan Eaves demoted the former biker before the end. Slight was seventh surviving a wild last lap challenge from Hughes. Warren slid wide and dropped to 11th.

James Kaye and Gavin Pyper were the class of the BTC Production field, but they clashed on the last lap at the Complex. "I'll put it down to him missing his braking point," muttered a displeased Kaye, though the Honda driver struggled across the line to win the class, while Pyper was out. Tom Boardman was thus second in class after a keeping his BMW ahead of a highly-entertaining race-long battle involving up to seven cars.


1 James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 19m47.539s 107.13mph
2 Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 19m49.941s 106.91mph
3 Anthony Reid (MG ZS) 19m50.421s 106.87mph
4 Andy Priaulx (Honda Civic Type-R) 19m57.778s 106.21mph
5 Tim Harvey (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 20m04.492s 105.62mph
6 Dan Eaves (Peugeot 406 Coupe) 20m04.735s 105.60mph
7 Aaron Slight (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 20m07.380s 105.37mph
8 Paul O'Neill (Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 20m09.534s 105.18mph
9 David Leslie (Proton Impian) 20m10.711s 105.08mph
10 Gareth Howell (MG ZS) 20m12.100s 104.96mph


1 James Kaye (Honda Civic Type-R) 14 laps 99.59mph
2 Tom Boardman (BMW 320i) 14 laps 97.68mph
3 Spencer Marsh (Honda Accord) 14 laps 97.65mph