Photo: PSP Images

Neal completes a Honda hat-trick at Oulton Park

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Matt Neal won an interrupted third race at Oulton Park for Honda Yuasa Racing Team, his second win of the day. It was a dominant day for the Honda squad, with Gordon Shedden’s race two victory meaning the team won all three races.

Polesitter Tom Onslow-Cole led the field into the first corner on lap one, with his West Surrey Racing team mate Nick Foster moving into second. Further back in the field there was contact between Will Bratt and Adam Morgan at Cascades, with the MG6 of Andy Neate and Honda Civic of Jeff Smith going off track in order to avoid it.

Matt Neal was able to overtake Nick Foster at Cascades to move into the race lead on lap two, with Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jason Plato also overtaking Foster to move into third. ES Racing’s Dave Newsham was given a drive through penalty after failing to follow an instruction to move to the back of the grid for the race start, with the Vauxhall Vectra later retiring.

Liam Griffin’s race ended on lap three when the Motorbase Performance driver spun at Druids and made contact with the barrier. Contact between Griffin’s team mate Mat Jackson and the Welch Motorsports Proton saw Dan Welch spear off track at Lodge. The safety car was deployed on lap four for the retrieval of Griffin’s car and to deal with the oil on track at Cascades. Ollie Jackson pitted with an electrical issue while Andy Neate retired with an engine issue.

Contact between Rob Collard and Andrew Jordan on the lap ten restart saw Jordan in the barriers at Old Hall. The safety car was redeployed as a result. The Focus ST of Aron Smith also needed to be retrieved after stopping at the Island Hairpin. The VW of Ollie Jackson was stopped at the same corner but the AMD Tuning driver was able to restart it.

The race was restarted on lap 13 with Neal taking the lead from Onslow-Cole a lap later at the Island Hairpin. Jason Plato moved into second after overtaking Onslow-Cole at Lodge on the same lap. This was how they finished the extended 18 lap race, with Neal taking the win, Plato in second and Onslow-Cole holding off challenges from Gordon Shedden to finish third. After another carnage filled race only 14 cars finished on the lead lap.

Shedden maintained his position as drivers’ championship points leader, with a five point margin to his team mate Neal ahead of the next round of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship, to be held at Croft Circuit on June 23-24.