On a damp but drying track, Jackson took the gamble to fit wet weather tyres all round on his Airwaves BMW. He quickly took the lead and went on to win on his team’s home circuit but he was fortunate as in the closing laps one of his tyres developed a slow puncture.
And he only just held on for the win ahead of Honda Racing Team driver Matt Neal whose slick tyres enabled him to close to within half a second at the end. Neal had come through from 13th on the grid.
Third, forced to give up second to the flying Neal on the final lap, was Jackson’s team mate Steven Kane.
As a result, Neal has moved into the joint championship lead with Jason Plato who failed to finish the race after his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze broke down on the first lap. Kane is up to third with just 17 points covering the top six.
It was Tom Boardman who initially led the race – the first time he’d done so in his BTCC career. However, his Special Tuning UK SEAT Leon quickly came under attack from the Airwaves cars of Kane and Jackson and it was the latter, with moves at the Hawthorns and following Westfield corners, who took over the lead on lap three. Kane took second from Boardman a lap later at Paddock Hill Bend but then a safety car period followed after Arthur Forster had spun his Forster BMW at Surtees Bend.
Soon after the restart James Nash (Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra) and Robert Collard (WSR BMW) also passed Boardman at the Westfield and Sheene corners respectively while behind Neal, his slick tyres now really starting to kick in, was up to eighth, past Andrew Jordan’s Pirtek Vectra at Paddock.
Alex MacDowall then joined team-mate Plato in retirement. Having run as high as fifth, he slipped wide at Clark Curve and was instantly under attack from a group of cars. At Paddock, his Chevrolet and Tom Chilton’s Aon Ford Focus made contact and MacDowall slid off the track with broken suspension on his Cruze. At the very next corner, Druids, David Pinkney, also fighting inside the top six, slid straight on and out of the race in his Pinkney Motorsport Vectra.
This meant a second safety car period and at the restart Neal was quick to reel off Boardman and Nash, Jordan also following him past both drivers. With two laps to go, Neal then moved into third past Collard and rapidly started closing in on the two leading Airwaves cars – their wet weather tyres now starting to suffer as the track dried. With a brave move he took Kane into Sheene but Jackson was just out of reach so it finished Jackson, Neal, Kane.
Collard held on for fourth ahead of Jordan and Chilton, sixth from the back of the grid after his disqualification from race two’s results. Lea Wood had looked set for a ninth place finish in his first BTCC meeting but found his Central Group Racing Honda muscled down to 11th in the closing laps. It was nevertheless a fine effort from the Hereford driver.
Elsewhere, the race was a disaster for the Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed team as both its Honda Integras, driven by Paul O’Neill and John George, failed to take the start after mechanical problems. O’Neill had gone into the race with a chance of taking over the championship lead having risen to second in the standings after the day’s earlier second race but, as a result of his non-score, has dropped to fourth behind Kane.
