Neal & Plato clash
Fabrizio Giovanardi won the third of Sunday’s three HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship races at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire.
Giovanardi, in his Vauxhall Vectra, overtook James Thompson’s Team Dynamics Honda Civic in a daring move around the outside on a soaking wet track between the daunting Sunny In and Out corners to win the race which was punctuated by three safety car periods.
Thompson followed the Italian across the finish line in second ahead of Stephen Jelley’s Team RAC BMW in third. For Jelley it was his third podium of the day – before he arrived at Croft he had never finished on the top three.
One had to feel for Paul O’Neill, though. He had led from pole position until mid-distance when a faulty alternator on his Sunshine.co.uk Honda Integra caused him to suddenly slow before retiring in the pit lane.
The race’s big talking point, however, was the controversial clash between old rivals Matt Neal and Jason Plato. Neal’s Vectra was sent spinning off the track and, after recovering, finished back in eighth, while Plato kept going to take fifth in his Chevrolet behind VX Racing’s Andrew Jordan.
The incident – which caused uproar among the huge crowd that had stayed on despite the weather – marked the end of a tough day for Neal who, having arrived at Croft leading the series by two points, has dropped to second in the standings behind new championship leader Colin Turkington.
Wins in the day’s first two races in his RAC BMW plus a sixth place in race three mean Northern Irishman Turkington is now 25 points clear of Neal as the title race enters a six-week mid-season break.
Meanwhile, Robert Collard, who had run among the leading group initially, was seventh after running off the road in his Airwaves BMW. Ninth, relinquishing a position to the recovering Neal through the Jim Clark Esses on the final lap, was Collard’s team-mate Jonathan Adam. Tenth, claiming the point denied him race one, was Tom Chilton in his Team Aon Ford Focus ST.
O’Neill aside, there were other notable casualties. Adam Jones, a favourite for the win in some people’s eyes, was rudely barged into the barriers at the first bend and, although he was able to restart his Cartridge World SEAT, later retired it in the pit lane.
His brief off caused the first safety car period. The second came immediately after the re-start when James Nash (RML Chevrolet) and Martin Johnson (Boulevard Vauxhall Astra) both slid off the track and into a gravel trap. The third then came immediately after the next re-start when David Pinkney aquaplaned at high speed into the barriers at Tower corner in his Dynamics Honda.
