Photo: BTCC.net

Neal leads Honda 1-2 at Knockhill in race two

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Matt Neal took victory in a dominant race for Honda at Knockhill, passing Shedden on lap 10 to take the win, with Jason Plato completing the podium.

At the start, Alex MacDowall bogged down, and almost stalled pulling to the side as he tried to get moving which gave Neal a great driving line to move up into second place, passing Steven Kane’s Airwaves BMW.

Behind them, Dave Pinkney’s Vectra bounced over a curb after a slight nudge with Andy Neate, and spun around and collected Rob Collard putting them both out of the race and causing a lengthy safety car period.

At the restart, Neal had a good run at Shedden, and moved past his team mate, now on full ballast after his race one victory, and held on to take the win, reinvigorating the Honda Racing Team’s championship bid.

Steven Kane sat patiently behind the two Honda cars, initally falling back but as the race went on the Hondas started to fall back into the clutches of Kane.

On lap 23, Plato outdragged the Ford Focus of Tom Chilton to move into fourth, and then two laps later, passed Steven Kane for third. Chilton almost got through as well, but Kane managed to hold him off for a lap.

Then, Chilton knocked Kane wide on lap 26, which saw Kane collect Paul O’Neill, Kane recovered to finish fifth and Paul O’Neill tenth. Chilton now finished fourth and was the top independent finisher.

The top seven will be reversed in race three, which will put Tom Onslow-Cole on pole position ahead of the two Airwaves BMW’s.