Photo: PSP Images

Matt Neal retakes championship lead with Honda 1-2

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Matt Neal bounced back in the final race of the day to move into the lead of the drivers championship by five points over team-mate Gordon Shedden & Jason Plato who are tied in second.

Nick Foster made a good getaway from pole position in his rear-wheel drive BMW 320si, with Andy Neate’s Arena Ford Focus dropping a short gap behind, but it didn’t take long for the two Hondas to move forward, both passing Neate through Westfield and then Foster on the start/finish straight to move into first and second with Neal leading Shedden.

That’s the way it stayed at the front apart from a brief swap for the lead on lap 12 to ensure Shedden picked up a point for leading a lap before restoring positions.

Nick Foster continued to drop down the order to finally finish in 10th place and pick up the final point.

Two Chevrolets ran into difficulties, with Paul O’Neill’s independent Tech-Speed Chevrolet retiring on lap ten with a broken driveshaft whilst running in fifth, and Alex MacDowall retiring on lap six.

Plato’s Chevrolet however was unaffected by issues, dropping behind Tom Boardman to 11th at the start but was able to pass the Ford Focus of Tom Onslow-Cole and gain other positions as others faultered to eventually finish in sixth and pick up five points.

Andy Neate looked set for a podium finish with third in the Arena Motorsport Ford Focus, before going wide under pressure from James Nash at Dingle Dell two laps from the end and was forced to go into the pits and retire. Neate’s Focus was narrowly missed by Tom Boardman’s STR SEAT León, who took avoiding action and dropped three spots to ninth.

Matt Neal now retakes the lead of the championship on 225 points, whilst Shedden and Plato are tied on 220, meaning Neal will carry 45kg of ballast in qualifying and race one at Silverstone in two weeks time, with Plato and Shedden both running with 27kg.

Honda’s 1-2 result in race three also means they provisionally secure the manufacturers/constructors championship for the second consecutive year with one race meeting to go, which will be on the short National Circuit at Silverstone on October 16th.