Giovanardi reigns at rainy Croft

Reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi picked up his second win of the season, putting in a masterful drive in soaking conditions to put himself firmly in the championship battle, as the BTCC heads into its mid-season break.

In conditions radically different from races one and two, torrential rain greeted round fifteen of the BTCC, with the race interrupted by three safety car periods, as drivers struggled to adapt to a wet Croft circuit.

With the rain increasing as the cars awaited the green flag, Matt Neal made a dreadful start, as all four BMW’s made the most of the rear wheel drive to execute perfect getaways.

At the front pole sitter Paul O’Neill led from James Thompson and Giovanardi, while behind them Adam Jones was turned into the barriers at the chicane, by Rob Collard, as he fought with Andrew Jordan.

This brought the safety car out for it’s first appearance of the day, while Jones extracted himself from the barriers to rejoin at the back of the field. All to no avail unfortunately, as battery problems later sidelined him during a further safety car period.

Collard, James Nash and Martin Johnson then all explored the outer reaches of the turn one gravel trap at the re-start, bringing the red Porsche back out once again.

In the brief period of racing that did take place, Giovanardi slipped past Thompson at the chicane into second place, as the rain got even heavier.

With standing water around much of the circuit, the safety car period was prolonged until lap eleven, but leader O’Neill wouldn’t be going much beyond the re-start.

The Integra driver lost all power at the chicane, coasting to a halt and allowing Giovanardi into the lead, at least until Tower when the Italian ran wide allowing Thompson through into the lead, while behind the order was changing constantly in difficult conditions.

Behind them Thompson’s Dynamics teammate David Pinkney aquaplaned straight on at Tower, resulting in a big impact with the barriers bringing the safety car out once more.

Somewhere in all the chaos, Stephen Jelley had worked his way up to third, aided by his mega start, ahead of Jordan in fourth.

With the rain beginning to abate the pace car was called in once more, allowing the drivers to once again explore where the puddles lay.

Immediately Giovanardi took charge, running around the outside of Thompson through Sunny In and Sunny Out, in an exemplary display of car control from both drivers as the pair diced side-by-side.

The move gave Giovanardi his first win since Thruxton in April, and also ensured that for the third year running he won race three at Croft.

Behind the leading duo, Jelley secured his third podium of the day (and his BTCC career!), with Jordan in fourth ahead of Jason Plato, who will surely face a penalty following his tap on the rear of Neal on lap sixteen, which sent the Vectra off into the infield at turn one, and down into tenth position.

Neal recovered to finish eighth, but will go into the mid-season break trailing Colin Turkington in the championship by 25 points. Victory moves Giovanardi back into third position; just four points behind Neal, with Plato a further seven behind on 113 and Collard in fifth on 98 points.