NEWS // NEAL TAKES DOUBLE WIN @ ROCKINGHAM

It was a weekend of firsts at Rockingham for the second meeting of this years Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. Tom Chilton became the first driver to record a BTCC pole position in an LPG powered car and Jason Plato gave the Chevrolet Cruze its maiden British series win.

Taking the other two race victory’s however was Matt Neal aboard his Team Honda Civic. Neal ended his recent baron spell with two dominant drives in both the first and last races of the day.

With no Fabrizio Giovanardi due to the Italian failing to secure funding to continue in the series with Triple Eight, Plato now moves to the top of the championship table with a healthy 17 point lead... [read more]

Race One:

In a race that was dominated by tyre choice Matt Neal lead home a one two finish for Team Honda in race one of the day at a damp Rockingham. The two time former champion elected to start the 16 lap race with slicks all round despite some early rain at the Northants circuit and duly lead from start to finish.

“There was no question for me as to which tyres to use” said Neal, “I knew the Fords would be strong at the start but as I had the drier side of the grid I was able to pull in front” The highly experienced man from Shenstone had alarm bells ring however in the last quarter of the race, “five laps from home my Civic developed a steering vibration which was quite worrying, but I soon realised it was down to tyre pick-up and nothing serious”, said the Honda driver.

Making it a great one two finish for the team who flattered to deceive at the opening round of the season at Thruxton was Scotsman Gordon Shedden in the sister Civic who finished eight seconds behind Neal at the flag.

Pole sitter Tom Chilton and the Team Aon Ford Focus perhaps suffered the most of the leading runners with a mixed tyre selection as the damp track started to quickly dry. Chilton had chosen to have wets fitted to the back of the Ford and soon found himself in trouble pitting on lap 5.

An initial great performance came from Andrew Jordan in the Vauxhall Vectra who by lap four had made his way into second place only to then suffer from overheating tyres as the surface dried.

Recording his best result of the year and scoring an Independent win was Tom Boardman in the Special Tuning Seat. Boardman battled up to fourth place by mid distance and held off the Airwaves BMW of Stephen Kane and Paul O’Neill’s Honda Integra to the flag.

Scoring a fantastic 9th place was Martin Johnson in his 10 year old BTCC Spec Vauxhall Astra Coupe.

ROCKINGHAM - RACE 1 RESULT - SUNDAY APRIL 25TH 2010:

1 4 M Matt NEAL GBR Honda Civic 23:38.434 16 - 1:25.908
2 52 M Gordon SHEDDEN GBR Honda Civic 23:46.667 16 8.233 1:26.283
3 2 M Jason PLATO GBR Chevrolet Cruze 23:47.352 16 8.9181:26.431
4 22 I Tom BOARDMAN GBR SEAT Leon 23:53.402 16 14.968 1:26.822
5 11 I Steven KANE GBR BMW 320si 23:55.278 16 16.844 1:26.471
6 29 I Paul O'NEILL GBR Honda Integra 23:55.561 16 17.127 1:26.852
7 77 I Andrew JORDAN GBR Vauxhall Vectra 24:12.525 16 34.0911:28.367
8 21 I/C Tom ONSLOW-COLE GBR Ford Focus ST 24:12.942 16 34.508 1:28.621
9 27 I Martin JOHNSON GBR Vauxhall Astra Coupe 24:29.696 16 51.262 1:27.818
10 6 I Rob COLLARD GBR BMW 320si 24:34.643 16 56.209 1:25.732
11 23 I/C Tom CHILTON GBR Ford Focus ST 24:35.192 16 56.758 1:25.914
12 20 M Alex McDowall GBR Chevrolet Cruze 24:50.741 16 1:12.307 1:31.129
13 5 I Mat JACKSON GBR BMW 320si 24:56.283 15 1 LAP 1:25.978
14 99 I Shaun HOLLAMBY GBR Volkswagen Golf 24:12.062 15 1 LAP 1:33.829
15 98 I Matt HAMILTON GBR Honda Civic 24:13.733 15 1 LAP 1:31.837
16 28 I John GEORGE GBR Honda Integra 24:21.392 15 1 LAP 1:27.572
17 37 I Arthur FORSTER GBR BMW 320si 24:29.471 15 1 LAP 1:34.969
18 55 I David PINKNEY GBR Vauxhall Vectra 24:54.140 15 1 LAP 1:26.429

NOT CLASSIFIED

DNF 14 I James NASH GBR Vauxhall Vectra 3:44.611 1 15 LAPS

DNF 44 I Andy NEATE GBR BMW 320si 1:49.225 1 15 LAPS

FASTEST LAP

6 I Rob COLLARD GBR BMW 320si 1:25.732 7 81.46 mph 131.10 kph

4 M Matt NEAL GBR Honda Civic 1:25.908 16 81.29 mph 130.83 kph

Race Two:

Jason Plato gave the RML Silverline Chevrolet Cruze its maiden BTCC win in race two at Rockingham. With Plato already having scored 3 podiums this year he took to the top step with a mature controlled drive ahead of Rob Collard's BMW and the similar 320si of Airwaves BMW pilot Stephen Kane.

Plato starting from third place on the grid made it to the first corner ahead of both Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden who were now laden with sucess ballast from their earlier victory. However a clash between the two on the exit of the second corner (Yentworth) allowed some of the chasing pack through. The first race pace setters then seemed to struggle as they fell back down the field.

Having struggled through all of practice and qualifying BMW finally began to find some pace with Rob Collard and Stephen Kane on the chase of the works Chevrolet. Kane looked set for the second step of the podium but an error on lap 13 allowed the WSR BMW of Collard through.

Collard closed to within half a second of Plato through the closing laps but the 2001 champion took the chequer much to the delight of all at RML. With the top nine finishers set to be reversed on the grid for race three, it will be Matt Neal and James Nash starting the final race from the front row of the grid.

ROCKINGHAM - RACE 2 RESULT - SUNDAY APRIL 25TH 2010:

1 2 M Jason PLATO GBR Chevrolet Cruze 23:06.392 16 - 1:25.019
2 6 I Rob COLLARD GBR BMW 320si 23:06.882 16 0.490 1:25.262
3 11 I Steven KANE GBR BMW 320si 23:08.305 16 1.913 1:25.031
4 5 I Mat JACKSON GBR BMW 320si 23:09.825 16 3.433 1:25.348
5 77 I Andrew JORDAN GBR Vauxhall Vectra 23:21.755 16 15.363 1:25.291
6 23 I/C Tom CHILTON GBR Ford Focus ST 23:24.517 16 18.125 1:25.229
7 21 I/C Tom ONSLOW-COLE GBR Ford Focus ST 23:27.526 16 21.134 1:25.543
8 29 I Paul O'NEILL GBR Honda Integra 23:27.797 16 21.405 1:25.997
9 4 M Matt NEAL GBR Honda Civic 23:30.222 16 23.830 1:25.322
10 14 I James NASH GBR Vauxhall Vectra 23:38.031 16 31.639 1:25.758
11 44 I Andy NEATE GBR BMW 320si 23:39.693 16 33.301 1:27.315
12 20 M Alex MacDOWALL GBR Chevrolet Cruze 23:40.669 16 34.277 1:25.648
13 52 M Gordon SHEDDEN GBR Honda Civic 23:42.729 16 36.337 1:25.695
14 98 I Matt HAMILTON GBR Honda Civic 23:46.865 16 40.473 1:26.862
15 27 I Martin JOHNSON GBR Vauxhall Astra Coupe 23:53.184 16 46.792 1:26.198
16 55 I David PINKNEY GBR Vauxhall Vectra 24:02.802 16 56.410 1:26.103
17 37 I Arthur FORSTER GBR BMW 320si 24:10.014 16 1:03.622 1:27.850

NOT CLASSIFIED

DNF 22 I Tom BOARDMAN GBR SEAT Leon 20:40.427 14 2 LAPS 1:26.526
DNF 28 I John GEORGE GBR Honda Integra 16:34.906 10 6 LAPS 1:27.801
DNF 99 I Shaun HOLLAMBY GBR Volkswagen Golf 0

FASTEST LAP

2 M Jason PLATO GBR Chevrolet Cruze 1:25.019 3 82.14 mph 132.20 kph
11 I Steven KANE GBR BMW 320si 1:25.031 2 82.13 mph 132.18 kph

Race Three:

Two time BTCC champion Matt Neal triumphed in the final race of the day at Rockingham to complete a double win on a weekend when Team Honda staked their claim for 2010 honours in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The hugely experienced Neal who made his BTCC debut back in 1991 led from the second corner of the reverse grid race three before going on to complete the victory, his second maximum points score of the weekend.

The 42 year old payed tribute to the work that Team Honda had carried out on the Civic over the course of the winter commenting "The team have made significant aero improvements, which along with the work of Neil Brown on the engine side have really begun to pay dividends". Neal added that he was truly over the moon with the result which has almost doubled his past success over the last 3 years.

The final race of the day at Rockingham had seen the Honda driver take the lead into the hairpin on lap one from the fast starting Tom Onslow-Cole in the LPG Ford Focus. From then on Neal was unchallenged all the way to the flag in the 16 lap encounter.

The ever popular fans favourite Paul O'Neill took second place in his Sunshine.co.uk Honda Integra after another fine drive further backing up his podium success at Thruxton three weeks ago. O'Neill was typically buoyant as he stepped from the car to the congratulations of the Sunshine team "I am truly lost for words" said the amiable 30 yr old before adding "What a day, this has to be my best performance of my career thus far". O'Neill had pulled off a great pass on Tom Onslow-Cole to move into second place on lap 12 at Yentwood with a classic switchback manoeuvre.

Third place went to Team Airwaves driver Stephen Kane who followed up his earlier consistent finishes to come away from the weekend with a healthy points score moving him into third place in the championship and top rear wheel drive runner. First the Irishman despatched Andrew Jordan in the Vauxhall Vectra at “Piff Paff” on lap 15 before moving past Tom Onslow-Cole at the "Deane" hairpin shortly afterwards to take third place.

Jason Plato backed up his race two victory with a solid 5th place finish despite carrying maximum success ballast to move to the top of the championship table with a healthy 13 point lead.

ROCKINGHAM - RACE THREE RESULT (REVERSE GRID) - SUNDAY APRIL 25TH 2010:

1 4 M Matt NEAL GBR Honda Civic 23:09.696 16 - 1:25.066
2 29 I Paul O'NEILL GBR Honda Integra 23:15.185 16 5.489 1:25.478
3 11 I Steven KANE GBR BMW 320si 23:17.513 16 7.817 1:25.525
4 77 I Andrew JORDAN GBR Vauxhall Vectra 23:19.965 16 10.269 1:25.346
5 2 M Jason PLATO GBR Chevrolet Cruze 23:20.491 16 10.795 1:25.654
6 6 I Rob COLLARD GBR BMW 320si 23:20.843 16 11.147 1:25.924
7 21 I/C Tom ONSLOW-COLE GBR Ford Focus ST 23:22.399 16 12.703 1:25.505
8 14 I James NASH GBR Vauxhall Vectra 23:23.313 16 13.617 1:25.665
9 44 I Andy NEATE GBR BMW 320si 23:23.704 16 14.008 1:26.141
10 22 I Tom BOARDMAN GBR SEAT Leon 23:25.876 16 16.180 1:26.232
11 27 I Martin JOHNSON GBR Vauxhall Astra Coupe 23:33.208 16 23.512 1:26.368
12 98 I Matt HAMILTON GBR Honda Civic 23:34.679 16 24.983 1:26.476
13 37 I Arthur FORSTER GBR BMW 320si 23:48.024 16 38.328 1:26.797
14 99 I Shaun HOLLAMBY GBR Volkswagen Golf 23:52.988 16 43.292 1:27.654
15 28 I John GEORGE GBR Honda Integra 24:03.485 16 53.789 1:27.105

NOT CLASSIFIED

DNF 52 M Gordon SHEDDEN GBR Honda Civic 19:13.014 12 4 LAPS 1:25.494
DNF 5 I Mat JACKSON GBR BMW 320si 0
DNF 20 M Alex MacDOWALL GBR Chevrolet Cruze 0
DNF 23 I/C Tom CHILTON GBR Ford Focus ST 0
DNF 55 I David PINKNEY GBR Vauxhall Vectra 0

FASTEST LAP

4 M Matt NEAL GBR Honda Civic 1:25.066 4 82.10 mph 132.12 kph
77 I Andrew JORDAN GBR Vauxhall Vectra 1:25.346 3 81.83 mph 131.69 kph

The series now moves swiftly on to the legendary Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit next weekend.

Photo/Editorial: Neil Tozer