Matt Neal took an unexpected victory here at Knockhill when he fought his way through the front running pack from eighth on the grid.
“I don’t know what to say.” Said Neal afterwards, seemingly rather speechless! “I thought we’d have a chance one minute then I thought we’d have absolutely no chance. We got bottled up behind Andy Jordan early on but once we got past it was different. I got up behind Jason [Plato] and he was playing with Sam [Tordoff], then Jason really seemed to start to struggle with tyres. That gave me the opportunity to pounce. Sam’s been fast all weekend. When he cleared Jason, I thought that would be it. Our car was monstrous right through to the end. It bodes well for the last one with Flash on the soft tyres.”
Plato had lead from pole in his Subaru but he wasn’t able to pull away as he had done in race two and found himself under attack from Sam Tordoff initially and then later team mate Turkington.
Turkington got past Tordoff had a failed passing attempt on Plato which then gave him the chance to try and over take his team mate for the lead. At the same time Jack Goff was just behind in the IHG Rewards BMW and he too was looking for a way past. He had run in second after the start before a failed passing attempt dropped him down.
Soon Matt Neal found his way up to join the fight with the top four’s battling slowing them down.
Turkington and Tordoff then swapped places several more times as each one lost pace when their passing attempts on Plato were foiled.
Turkington then came under attack from Goff but when they collided at the hairpin, Matt Neal sensed an opportunity and roared past both of them into second.
Plato and Tordoff then slowed each other dramatically while battling so the opportunistic Neal then blasted past both of them to take the lead with a lap to go.
So it finished Neal from Tordoff and Plato as the Subaru driver had started to struggle. Plato was probably glad the race wasn’t any longer as he could have come under attack from the cars behind.
Tordoff was pleased with second, thinking of his championship aims;
“It was chaos at times – we were all going for it! For a lot of it I just didn’t know where to go! We made a few tweaks to the car after race one and it was a different beast. Jason (Plato) started to struggle with his tyres and it gave me the chance. I was right with him until Matt Neal made his move then I followed him through at the hairpin – he stuck his nose in where it hurts. There’s a long way to go in the championship so we’re not thinking about the future and we’re not too worried about the long term right now. We keep scoring points and what will be will be.”
Plato was relieved to claim third;
“Everything was going okay. For some reason I then had a big moment at the hairpin. The oversteer was getting worse and worse. It took me a while to recalibrate. When Colin [Turkington] tried to pass me early on, I got a knock and wondered if I got a slow puncture. It was great fun and as much as I tried, I just couldn’t quite hang on. Before the race, the target was the podium and I was fairly confident that if the balance stayed the same I could work out what to do. A podium’s a podium so I’ve got to be pleased with that. I’m starting to understand the car a bit more and Colin’s probably half-a-tenth quicker still. His intel’s a bit better than mine on these cars at the moment but we’re coming!”
The race length was extended after an early safety car caused by Martin Depper’s Eurotech Honda getting stranded by the side of the track and also Warren Scott who had again spun off and became stuck.
Behind the top three is was Turkington fourth from Collard who had fought his way past team mate Goff late on. Collard had fought his way up from seventeenth on the grid and had one of the stand out drives of the race beyond the leaders.
Mat Jackson also took a place from Goff to finish sixth with Goff hanging onto seventh. Andrew Jordan’s Ford Focus was eighth with significant battle damage after some hard racing in the mid pack.
Gordon Shedden hadn’t been able to make the progress of Neal and was ninth with fellow Scott Aiden Moffat of Laser Tools racing in tenth.
Eleventh was Wix Racing’s Adam Morgan in the sister car to Moffat’s Laser Tools racing Machine. Rob Austin scored more points for Handy Motorsport in twelfth with RCIB Insurance Racing’s Jake Hill thirteenth.
Dave Newsham scored more points in fourteenth with the final point taken by Eurotech’s Jeff Smith. Smith had a fighting drive from close to the back after his non finish in race one. The team did well to fix the significant damage to the Civic and the point was some reward for their efforts.
Mat Jackson has been drawn on the reverse grid pole with Rob Collard alongside. Turkington and Plato are on the second row so Jackson will have a hard fight keeping the rear wheel drive machines behind on a circuit which usually favours them.
1 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing 25:42.020 (79.86) mph
2 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +1.249s
3 Jason PLATO (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +2.340s
4 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +2.830s
5 Robert COLLARD (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +2.836s
6 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Motorbase Performance +3.640s
7 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team IHG Rewards Club +4.175s
8 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) Motorbase Performance +4.756s
9 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +5.554s
10 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +6.706s
11 Adam MORGAN (GBR) WIX Racing +10.914s
12 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +13.192s
13 Jake HILL (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +15.079s
14 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +18.559s
15 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +19.576s
16 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +25.630s
17 Stewart LINES (GBR) Maximum Motorsport +32.399s
18 Alex MARTIN (GBR) Dextra Racing +33.788s
19 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +34.434s
20 Dan WELCH (GBR) Goodestone Racing +35.408s
21 James COLE (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +35.538s
22 Hunter ABBOTT (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +1 lap
23 Mark HOWARD (GBR) BKR +1 lap
DNF Aron SMITH (IRL) BKR +2 laps
DNF Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +2 laps
DNF Michael EPPS (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +3 laps
DNF Warren SCOTT (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +7 laps
DNF Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmD Tuning.com+12 laps By Marc Waller
