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British Touring Car Championship
Brands Hatch (Indy) - Race 3 Report - 5/4/15

By MJP Media | 5 April 2015

Matt Neal wins the final race of the day from Brands Hatch following a surprise re-draw of the race 3 grid and now tops the championship table on equal points with Jack Goff.

Matt Neal wins the final race of the day at Brands Hatch

In a shock to both teams and fans alike, Series Director Alan Gow declared that he didn't feel that the reverse draw for the race 3 grid was conducted properly and, live on ITV, re-drew the reverse grid himself. As luck would have it, he drew the same number 10 ball and therefore the grid remained the same as we reported previously, with Rob Austin on pole for Exocet AlcoSense. What Rob thought of the aspersions cast by the re-draw will probably never be reported!

Alongside Rob Austin on the front row of the grid was Jack Goff in the MG 888 Racing MG 6GT. The crowd, however, were looking further down the grid where the quickest cars of the day were going to be fighting their way through the field. In particular there was Colin Turkington in 8th with Andy Priaulx 9th, Gordon Shedden 10th, Aron Smith 12th, Rob Collard 16th and Jason Plato 24th after the puncture that ended his earlier race. This was going to be fantastic.

A 2nd victory for the new Honda Civic Type R today

As the glorious sunshine bathed the circuit, the lights went out and Rob Austin got a great start as Matt Neal leapt into second place. There was then an immediate safety car period as Rob Collard got fired off into the gravel at the bottom of Paddock Hill and four drivers got involved in a crash at Druids including Jason Plato. Fortunately Plato was able to continue and catch up to the rear of the field behind the safety car. Josh Cook retired at Clearways under the safety car and Team BMR boss Warren Scott, Gordon Shedden and Aiden Moffat pulled in to the pits. At the restart it was Rob Austin ahead of Matt Neal with Jack Goff 3rd, Sam Tordoff 4th and Tom Ingram 5th as the race was extended to 27 laps.

Rob Austin was able to build a small lead as the cars directly behind him were fighting hard for their own places. Colin Turkington had an off and fell down to 18th place as he lost the rear of the car at Clearways. Andrew Jordan was fighting hard and took 5th on lap 10 with the fastest lap of the race. Jason Plato then went up to 14th with a new fastest lap and was certainly a man on a mission. Lap 15 saw Andrew Jordan taking 4th while Aron Smith was now up to 7th. At the front, the top three were having a fantastic battle with inches between them and Andrew Jordan closing the gap quickly.

Matt Neal is delighted to be leading the Drivers' Championship

Matt Neal took the lead from Rob Austin at the start of lap 21 with Jack Goff following him through to take 2nd place. In a dramatic moment on the same lap, Andrew Jordan also passed Rob Austin but tapped the Audi and in doing so, punctured a tyre causing him to pit. Aron Smith was still flying and passed Rob Austin for 3rd place on lap 23 from 12th on the grid. Lap 25 saw Matt Neal's soft tyres starting to slip and he was forced to defend from Jack Goff. At the finish line it was victory for Matt Neal just ahead of Jack Goff and Aron Smith. Sam Tordoff was 4th with Rob Austin 5th and Tom Ingram 6th. Adam Morgan, Andy Priaulx, Dave Newsham and Hunter Abbott completed the top 10.

As the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship leaves Brands Hatch, Matt Neal is at top of the championship standings with 37 points, equal with Jack Goff. Aron Smith is 3rd with 36 points and Andy Priaulx 4th with 34. The next stop is Donington Park on the 18th and 19th April where Matt Neal will start race 1 with a full 75Kg of success ballast on board, however Honda Yuasa Racing will surely be the happiest team of this particular race weekend, having taken victory in two out of the three races.

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