Jason Plato, Matt Neal and James Thompson were the winners of today’s (Sunday) three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire. Neal, whose win came in his 300th BTCC race, leaves having extended his championship lead to 39 points over young Northern Irish star Colin Turkington, but the day has ended in some controversy.
Reigning champion Neal has lost the third place result he achieved in race three. The BTCC’s Clerk of the Course initially reprimanded Neal for overtaking Plato at the final corner by placing all four wheels off the circuit. A subsequent appeal by Plato’s SEAT team was then upheld by the BTCC Stewards who judged Neal’s actions had gained him an unfair advantage. He was thus demoted a place to fourth while Plato was elevated to third. That means Plato, third in the championship, has today gained five points on Neal in the title race which now heads to Donington Park, Leicestershire on 30 July.
Team Halfords driver Neal said: “It was just one of those things – there was certainly no malice in it.
I’m just sorry Jason took it so badly, but I’m not going to get upset
about it. I tried but it wasn’t to be. Overall, I’m really pleased with
the way my day has gone. I’ve still pulled four points on Colin and
Jason’s only made up five on me. To win in my 300th race was also bit
special but above all we’re still well clear at the top of the table.
Again, my car will go into the next meeting with maximum success
ballast and at a place like Donington that could hurt us quite a bit.
We won there last year but it was the first round and I think we simply
caught the others on the hop. This time I think it’ll be a lot harder,
although on saying that I thought Croft today might cause us a few
problems…”
Team RAC driver Turkington said he was disappointed not to have trimmed
the gap to Neal. Turkington added: “It’s been a bit of an odd weekend
for me – my car’s been fast but not quite fast enough to do anything
startling. Losing points is not what I wanted this weekend, but our
car’s got great consistency and that can still count for a lot. We’re
only now half way through the season and it’s usually in the second
half that the racing starts to get a bit frantic so I need to make sure
I’m in a position to capitalise when that does happen.”
SEAT star Plato, now just five points behind Turkington, said: “We need
to be gaining more than that on Matt at each circuit if we’re to nick
the title off him. Our car is phenomenal around the corners but as
everyone’s seen today as the races wear on and the tyres start to lose
their grip it turns into a horsepower game and the Hondas have got us
licked down the straights. On saying that, I think Donington should
suit our car – it’s got lots of medium to fast turns and that’s where
we can give the others a proper race. There’s still a long way to go.”
Meanwhile, Thompson, contesting only six of the BTCC’s ten meetings due
to clashing World Touring Car Championship commitments with SEAT, is
now a clear fourth in the championship, still followed by Neal’s Team
Halfords team-mate Gordon Shedden who displayed great pace at Croft but
was out of luck.
As a result of his race three demotion, Neal’s Team Halfords squad has
dropped to second in the Teams’ championship, two points behind SEAT
Sport UK – Team Halfords had been in front by 27 points arriving at
Croft. SEAT has also increased its lead in the Manufacturers’ table
over Vauxhall from 34 to 77 points. But Neal and Team Halfords have
consolidated their respective leads in the Independents Trophy’s
Drivers’ and Teams’ standings.
Round 13, 15 laps (31.905 miles) Weather/Track: Sunny & Hot/Dry Plato’s last lap glory
Having fought his way through from fifth at one point, Plato took
victory after passing team-mate and long-time leader Thompson on the
final lap. Thompson had led from pole position but three corners from
home found himself demoted to second where he stayed to complete a SEAT
1-2 result behind Plato.
Plato had trailed Thompson, Vauxhall team-mates Tom Chilton, who’d
started from second, and Fabrizio Giovanardi plus Shedden during the
opening stages. But then the race started to come to him as both
Shedden and then Chilton came into the pit lane, the former for repairs
to his car’s bodywork, the latter to retire permanently with broken
suspension.
Plato then found a way past Giovanardi before going on to pass Thompson
and open the day with a victory. In fact, Giovanardi’s Astra Sport
Hatch was slowing with engine problems and in the dying stages the
luckless Italian fell to an eventual sixth behind Neal, Turkington and
his Team RAC team-mate Robert Collard who themselves had been embroiled
in a furious mid-race battle.
Arguably the star of the race was Irish driver Eoin Murray – his Quest
Racing-run Alfa Romeo was handicapped with maximum ballast for starting
the season late, but he still made up four positions to finish tenth
and score a point on his BTCC debut.
Result:
| Pos. |
Driver (Nationality) |
Team/Car |
Time |
| 1 |
Jason Plato (GBR) |
SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon |
22m08.206s |
| 2 |
James Thompson (GBR) |
SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon |
+0.795s |
| 3 |
Matt Neal (GBR) |
Team Halfords/Honda Integra |
+5.045s |
| Fastest Lap: Thompson, 1m26.332s |
Round 14, 15 laps (31.905 miles) Weather/Track: Sunny & Hot/Dry Neal wins in 300th race
Neal celebrated his 300th BTCC race in spectacular style with victory
after passing Plato for the lead with a successful late lunge at the
hairpin. Plato, taking part in his 200th BTCC race, had led all the way
from pole and defended hard throughout from the ever-present Neal. But
just two laps from home, Neal sensed an opportunity at the hairpin and
dived inside the SEAT driver.
Neal said: “Until then Jason hadn’t made one mistake – I just couldn’t
crack him. But this time he braked a bit earlier than normal and I was
perhaps a bit closer. Two laps from the end… I didn’t need asking
twice. I’m sure he wanted to win because it was his 200th race, but I’m
older and have done another 100 races than him so he’ll have to wait
his turn!”
There was more drama in the battle for third. Thompson had held the
position from the start, but two corners from home he slid wide and
instantly both Turkington and Shedden, who set the fastest lap time as
he moved up from 12th on the grid, overtook him.
Result:
| Pos. |
Driver (Nationality) |
Car |
Time |
| 1 |
Matt Neal (GBR) |
Team Halfords/Honda Integra |
22m10.791 |
| 2 |
Jason Plato (GBR) |
SEAT Sport UK/SEAT Leon |
+0.966s |
| 3 |
Colin Turkington (GBR) |
Team RAC/MG ZS |
+6.055s |
| Fastest lap: Gordon Shedden (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Integra, 1m26.930s |
Round 15, 14 laps (29.778 miles) Weather/Track: Sunny & Hot/Dry Thompson all the way
Once he’d deposed Vauxhall’s Gavin Smith – who’d started from pole
thanks to the reversed grid draw – Thompson quickly established a
comfortable lead that he held to the chequered flag.
A spin for Smith then dropped him to an eventual eighth and allowed
Shedden to take over second for the middle part of the race. But he was
also to hit problems when his car suffered a punctured tyre, although
not before he’d again set the race’s fastest lap time.
This enabled Turkington to finish a clear second, while behind, through
the final corner, Neal again dramatically dived past Plato at the
hairpin to take third position. Neal, though, would later be relegated
back to fourth behind Plato after it was judged he’d short-cut the
hairpin and gained an unfair advantage.
Fifth, having produced a sensational drive from the back of the grid
and at who one point challenged Neal for fourth, was Giovanardi. His VX
Racing team-mate Chilton completed the top six.
Result:
| Pos. |
Driver (Nationality) |
Team/Car |
Time |
| 1 |
James Thompson (GBR) |
SEAT Sport UK |
20m42.518s |
| 2 |
Colin Turkington (GBR) |
Team RAC/MG ZS |
+2.952s |
| 3 |
Matt Neal (GBR) |
Team Halfords/Honda Integra |
+5.408s |
| Fastest lap: Shedden, 1m26.898s |
Leading BTCC points after Croft (provisional):
BTCC Drivers Championship 2006
| Pos. |
Driver |
points |
| 1 |
Matt Neal |
167 |
| 2 |
Colin Turkington |
128 |
| 3 |
Jason Plato |
123 |
| 4 |
James Thompson |
114 |
| 5 |
Gordon Shedden |
86 |
| 6 |
Tom Chilton |
75 |
| 7 |
Gavin Smith |
59 |
| 8 |
Robert Collard |
58 |
| 9 |
Fabrizio Giovanardi |
52 |
| 10 |
Mike Jordan |
49 |
BTCC Championship Scores
| Pos. |
Team |
points |
| Manufacturers Championsip |
| 1 |
SEAT |
327 |
| 2 |
Vauxhall |
250 |
| Teams Championship |
| 1 |
Team Halfords |
239 |
| 2 |
SEAT Sport UK |
237 |
| 3 |
Team RAC |
183 |
| 4 |
VX Racing |
160 |
|
