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The 2012 Season Starts Here
The last week has seen a flurry of activity as championships big and small held their annual media days and opening tests, with some already even getting down to racing proper. The British Touring Car Championship heads strongly into a new all-turbo generation and this year boasts 10 models from nine different marques on its 24-car grid, including the technicolour liveried return of the MG name.
The BTCC season opener hits Brands Hatch on 1st April, followed a week later by the first rounds of the British GT Championship and the British F3 International Series at Oulton Park. While some single-seater formulae have struggled in recent times - Formula Renault postponing its UK series due to poor entries - British F3 continues to attract young talent. With recent champions including the Scuderia Toro Rosso pairing of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, its status as a stepping-stone to Formula 1 is hard to dispute.
Read more...Collard and Foster Star at Croft as Neal and Jackson Take the BTCC Wins
- Details
- Category: BTCC
- Sunday, 19 June 2011
Matt Neal and Mat Jackson shared the wins in today’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire where Robert Collard and his rookie team-mate Nick Foster were also stars of the show.
Former double champion Neal won the day’s first two races in his Honda Racing Team Civic but Jackson, the young pretender, struck back with victory in the third in his Airwaves Racing Ford Focus. As a result, Worcestershire’s Neal continues to lead the championship but Warwickshire’s Jackson, looking his most competitive yet in his fifth season in the BTCC, is a mere nine points adrift as the teams head into a seven-week summer break before the next three races of their season at Snetterton, Norfolk on 6-7 August.
After a first corner spill for reigning champion Jason Plato who’d qualified on pole position in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze, Neal led every lap in race one for the 40th victory of his career. But he was just 0.055s ahead of Jackson at the line as the latter’s gamble on tyre choice on a rapidly drying track enabled him to close right up at the end. Collard took third in his WSR BMW.
Despite his car carrying the maximum 45kgs of success ballast, Neal then impressively led all the way again in race two ahead of Collard and Staffordshire’s Andrew Jordan in his Pirtek Racing Vauxhall Vectra. Race three almost produced the shock of the season so far, however. Jackson ran out the winner but was under constant pressure throughout from Hampshire duo Foster and Collard who took second and third places. This was Foster’s first podium result in only his fifth BTCC event.
Neal said: “I thought we could get a podium or two here but two wins is a dream come true. Seventh in race three means more points and they are very important – that lad Jackson is putting up a real fight and we would be very naïve to underestimate him in the second half of the season.”
Jackson, from Henley in Arden, added: “Second place followed by a fifth in race two and then victory in race three are great results for us but boy those BMWs made me fight for it! Our win in race three was vital as it’s kept us right in touch with Neal and gives everyone in the team an extra lift as we go into the break.”
Meanwhile Honda/Dynamics and the Honda Racing Team have extended their respective leads in the Manufacturer/Constructor and HiQ Teams championships. Jackson now tops the independent drivers’ standings ahead of Jordan and 888 Racing with Collins Contractors’ James Nash who had led the table arriving at Croft. Jackson’s Airwaves team has also assumed the lead of the Independent Teams Championship.
Elsewhere, the BTCC has accepted an apology from Jason Plato for comments he made during ITV’s live coverage at Oulton Park a fortnight ago. It has therefore decided not to proceed with referring the matter to the championship’s stewards.
