Neal 0.055 seconds ahead of a storming Jackson

Matt Neal won the first race of the day at Croft in one of the closest BTCC finishes ever, the fourth closest to be specific, with a tyre gambling Mat Jackson just 0.055 seconds behind.
“I saw Mat coming and I thought he was going to do me in the sprint to the finish. But a great win for Honda,” said Neal.

Jackson, starting ninth, gambled with slicks on the front and wets on the rear in the slippery conditions. After a struggling first part of the race, the Ford driver really started to gain towards the end of the race and made his way past Gordon Shedden, Jason Plato and Rob Collard in just a couple of laps.

“We took a gamble on the grid. We knew it was going to be a long game, but the safety car worked for us. Shame to be second again, so close but so far,” said Jackson.

Collard put hard pressure on Neal earlier in the race, but lost some ground towards the end of the race and had to defend from Plato on the final lap.

Plato started on pole, took the start, but got in to a big slide in the first corner after, what seemed to be, a light tap from Collard. The Chevrolet driver pulled off a great save, but lost two positions to Neal and Collard.

The safety car was brought out once in the race as Tony Gilham went off in to the gravel trap at Clervaux and remained out for two laps as the 888 Vauxhall Vectra was cleared.

Shedden crossed the line as fifth, close to eight seconds from Neal, with Andrew Jordan sixth, Tom Chilton seventh and James Nash eighth. Paul O’Neill and Tom Boardman rounded off top ten.