Seventh heaven for Giovanardi

Fabrizio Giovanardi took his seventh BTCC victory at Thruxton in Race Two; his second win of the weekend. Behind the Italian Matt Neal completed a storming drive through the field to finish second, with Paul O’Neill taking third in a popular podium finish.

The double BTCC champion added Race Two victory to his earlier Race One win to make it two from two, on a weekend when he had expected to be anywhere but racing at Thruxton. Leading from lights-to-flag, Giovanardi was in control throughout, with Jason Plato removed from second position after a late clash with Neal at the chicane.

Giovanardi’s win was also the ninth win for the Vauxhall Vectra in fourteen races at Thruxton, proving that the car, whether in the guises of VX Racing or Uniq Racing with Triple Eight, is perfectly suited to the Hampshire circuit.

While Giovanardi and Plato made perfect starts, third place man Mat Jackson was slow away, perhaps hampered by the new regulations for rear-wheel drive machines. O’Neill took advantage of this to jump into third, a position he’d eventually finish in.

Starting down in twelfth, Neal immediately began carving his way through those ahead, working his way through a midfield pack containing BTCC-newbies Alex MacDowall and Phil Glew and the likes of Andrew Jordan.

At the front Giovanardi maintain a two second gap over Plato, who was under pressure from O’Neill and the recovering Jackson who gradually made his way back up to the Integra’s rear bumper.

Neal was up to fifth on lap nine, outdragging MacDowall across the start/finish line after getting better drive out of the final chicane, with Jordan following the Honda past through the Complex.

Two laps later and Neal was past Jackson at the chicane, before reeling in O’Neill and Plato, who reported suffering from a mid-race vibration. The Civic swept past the Integra coming out of Goodwood to set up a dice with Plato’s Cruze.

With the Chevrolet running slightly wide coming out of Church on the penultimate lap, this allowed Neal a run on the bright blue machine, and with neither willing to break for the chicane first, contact resulted – Plato running into the Honda on the outside of him.

Neal was sent straight across the chicane, with Plato spinning and rejoining in fourth behind the promoted O’Neill.

Behind the Widnes racer, Jackson took fifth with MacDowall and Glew again collecting points finishes in sixth and seventh positions respectively. Further down the order there was good news for the AmD Milltek team on their first weekend of action, with Shaun Hollamby recording the cars first BTCC finish.

Rob Collard will start Race Three from Pole Position after his ninth placed finish, with WTCC ace Rob Huff drawing the number nine in the reverse grid draw on ITV4.