Photo: Jakob Ebrey

Matt Neal denies Adam Morgan victory with late race move

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Matt Neal made a late race move to take victory in the final race at Knockhill, despite a seemingly dominant drive from Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan.

Morgan claimed pole position after two-time BTCC champion John Cleland drew number 10 and seemed to be driving to a simple victory in the Ciceley Racing Mercedes-Benz A Class. However, with just two laps to go, Morgan picked up a large piece of debris on the front of his car, allowing Neal’s Honda Civic Type-R to close in.

Knowing he had a very limited amount of time, Neal made his move on the next lap, diving inside at the hairpin and holding off Morgan for the final 1.2 mile circuit of the tight, Scottish track.

The first quarter of the race seemed to be heading for a Mercedes 1-2 as Aiden Moffat followed Morgan around the track in his own Aiden Moffat Racing A Class, but it was only a matter of time before he was reeled in by Neal.

Behind the top three, championship leader, Team BMR’s Jason Plato, was desperately trying to keep the West Surrey Racing BMW 125i of Andy Priaulx at bay. Priaulx finally made his way through on lap 15, forcing Plato wide into the hairpin and setting his sights on Aiden Moffat in the final podium position.

It took the remainder of the race, but Priaulx finally took third on the final lap, albeit through a controversial move on the young Scot at Scotsman corner. The result was later overturned by the officials, promoting Moffat to third and thus scoring his first BTCC podium.

Plato would finish the race in sixth, eventually losing his top five finish to the on-form Rob Austin in the Audi A4, taking three very strong points on the weekend where his team-mate, Hunter Abbott became a first-time father.

Meanwhile, a race long battle saw Triple Eight Racing’s Andrew Jordan hold back the challenges of Honda’s Gordon Shedden and Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson for seventh through to ninth, while Martin Depper rounded out the top ten in the Eurotech Racing Honda Civic.

Elsewhere, West Surrey Racing had a race to forget with both Rob Collard and Sam Tordoff going off track with damage almost a lap within each other, while Team BMR’s nightmare day ended with Colin Turkington in 15th, Aron Smith in 17th and Warren Scott non-finishing.