Neal wins race three, moves to 2nd in standings

Matt Neal has won race three at Rockingham from pole, and moves to second place in the standings, 17 points behind Silverline Chevrolet’s Jason Plato.

Tom Onslow-Cole made the best start in the Team Aon Ford Focus, and drove straight past Matt Neal and Paul O’Neill to take the lead heading into the first corner, as O’Neill battled around the first part of the lap with the other Focus of Tom Chilton.

By the end of the first lap however, Neal had repassed Onslow-Cole, whilst two incidents took a number of cars out of the race. At the back, Dave Pinkney’s Vectra & Alex MacDowell’s Chevrolet took damage and pulled into the pits to retire, whilst at the front, Jackson & Chilton also retired from the race.

Neal continued to build a lead from Onslow-Cole, but as the race continued, Paul O’Neill managed to catch up with the Ford, and re-took second place on lap 12.

The other Honda Racing Team Civic of Gordon Shedden had an eventful race, failing to pass Jason Plato in an ambitious driving manouvre, he fell back behind the Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra of James Nash.

Although he would get back ahead Nash on lap 7, on lap 17, Rob Collard, taking advantage of the late race pace we’ve been seeing from BMW, had contact with the Honda, and Shedden crashed out of the race.

As the race drew to a close, Collard closed in on Plato, in an effective repeat of the battle we saw in race two, but instead of for a victory, it was for 6th.

On lap 15, after many attempts and many laps, Steven Kane managed to finally pass Andrew Jordan’s Pirtek Racing for fourth, which quickly became third as Tom Onslow-Cole made a mistake on the final lap and fell all the way behind Rob Collard.

Jason Plato leaves Rockingham as the championship leader on 64 points, Matt Neal on 47, and Steven Kane 45.