Neal wins thrilling first race of 2009

Matt Neal made the most of his pole position ahead of the first British Touring Car Championship race of 2009 and won. The Brit headed a Vauxhall 1-2 with team mate Fabrizio Giovanardi second.
“That was a bit busy – losing the lead at the start, then having to fight back through and then having to defend to the line. But pole position and a win – I can’t argue with that,” said Neal.

Neal lost the lead to the fast starting BMW’s of Robert Collard and Colin Turkington at the start.

Collar held the lead for seven laps until he made a mistake and ran wide at Druids. Tukington and Neal immediately roared past the Airwaves BMW driver.

Neal did not wait long until he made his move on Turkington for the lead. The Vauxhall driver pushed his way past at Clearways only to see Turkington getting back in to the lead right after. But a lap later with a similar maneuver Neal got in to the lead and stayed there until the end of the race.

Giovanardi mean while had dropped back to fifth due to a bad start. His team mate and Vauxhall newcomer Andrew Jordan made a much better start and had followed Neal past Turkington.

Jordan kept a high pace and was right behind Neal when he suddenly slowed down and had to retire due to mechanical problems. Giovanardi mean while had climbed back up through the field, passing Collard and Turkington, and found him self second behind Neal.

Turkington held third and Collard took fourth after dropping behind the leading three cars.

Adam Jones made an excellent race to take his World Carbon Zero Racing prepared SEAT Léon from ninth on the grid to fifth over the finish line.

Jason Plato had an interesting debut with the RML prepared Chevrolet Lacetti. The previous champion finished sixth after a spectacular drag race for the finish line with BMW-man Stephen Jelley. Only 0.002 seconds separated the both in the end!

Stay tuned for the second and third race of the day!