Thompson wins third Croft race

The SEAT driver, who gave up victory in the first encounter earlier today to help teammate Jason Plato's title aspirations, passed pole-sitter Gavin Smith on the second lap and then eased away to take the win.

The victory was the third of the season for the former champion, and his first since the opening meeting of the year at Brands Hatch.

Colin Turkington held a watching brief on Thompson to finish a distant second, but gained on Matt Neal and Plato in the title race.

Honda driver Neal won a superb scrap with title rival Plato, only taking the final podium position in the final 10 metres of the race.

Neal, who had passed Plato cleanly to take today's second victory, was behind him going into the final hairpin.

However they touched, and Neal effectively cut the corner as a result. Neal was able to get marginally better drive out of the corner on the final straight, edging Plato by just eight thousandths of a second at the line.

Fabrizio Giovanardi finished a superb fifth from the back of the grid, making a great start and taking positions throughout.

Vauxhall driver Smith could have finished strongly after running the early laps in second.

However, under pressure from Gordon Shedden, Smith lost control under braking for the super-fast Sunny In corner spinning off the circuit. He got back on track and eventually finished eighth.

After inheriting the position, Shedden looked set to take the runner-up spot, before disaster struck three laps from home when he suffered a puncture.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver               Make                  Time
 1.  James Thompson       SEAT Leon             20:42.518
 2.  Colin Turkington     MG ZS                 +   2.952
 3.  Matt Neal            Honda Integra         +   5.408
 4.  Jason Plato          SEAT Leon             +   5.416
 5.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall Astra Sport  +   8.689
 6.  Tom Chilton          Vauxhall Astra Sport  +  10.293
 7.  Mike Jordan          Honda Integra         +  15.784
 8.  Gavin Smith          Vauxhall Astra Sport  +  17.225
 9.  James Kaye           Honda Civic Type R    +  22.973
10.  Robert Collard       MG ZS                 +  23.233
11.  Jason Hughes         MG ZS                 +  25.607
12.  Eoin Murray          Alfa Romeo 156        +  27.453
13.  Adam Jones           Lexus IS200           +  34.522
14.  Fiona Leggate        Vauxhall Astra Coupe  +  36.405
15.  Erkut Kizilirmak     Vauxhall Astra Sport  +  42.441
16.  Martyn Bell          BMW 320i E46          +  48.265
17.  Gordon Shedden       Honda Integra         +1:08.827
18.  Mark Smith           Alfa Romeo 156        +1:11.334

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver               Make                 Laps
     David Pinkney        Honda Integra         9
     Mark Proctor         Honda Civic Type R    5

Fastest lap: Shedden, 1:26.898 on lap 14