Photo: PSP Images

Matt Neal wins the 2011 British Touring Car Championship

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Matt Neal has won the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship drivers’ title with an eighth place finish in the final race, with team-mate Gordon Shedden finishing behind him in tenth.

The race was won by Tom Chilton in the Arena Motorsport Ford Focus, with the 26-year-old taking his second win of the season ahead of Jason Plato and Tom Boardman.

Alex MacDowall had started from pole, but couldn’t hold off the fast starting pair of Chilton and Plato and found himself third after the first corner at Copse, whilst Neal and Shedden both progressed one position from the start to seventh and eighth respectively.

Tom Boardman’s in the STR SEAT passed MacDowall on lap two and stayed ahead to take the final podium position, his third podium of the season.

Returning former Champion James Thompson set the fastest lap in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, and had worked his way up to 14th despite starting from the pitlane, but was hit with a drive through penalty for going wide at Copse on four occassions.

The next Championship points battle was between Mat Jackson and James Nash, with the two independent drivers fighting to see who would finish fourth in the overall standings. Jackson passed Nash at Brooklands, before Nash tapped the Ford into a half spin to retake the place at the next corner. Jackson took back the place at the following lap, whilst Nash was soon given a drive through penalty, but with Jackson soon also given the mechanical black flag for a loose bonnet, both finished out of the points with Jackson finishing fourth in the Championship on countback.

The Hondas soon came under threat from the two NGTC cars of Rob Austin and Frank Wrathall. Austin passed Shedden on lap 17 and then overtook Matt Neal one lap later, and went on to pass Tom Onslow-Cole’s Ford for sixth on the penultimate lap after tapping the Focus into a slide.

Frank Wrathall also caught and passed Shedden on the final lap demoting the Scotsman to 10th.

With Neal finishing ahead of Shedden, the 44-year-old wins his third British Touring Car Championship drivers’ title and the first for Team Dynamics since his last title in 2006, with Shedden second in the standings and Plato third.