Matt Neal took his 50th BTCC win after benefitting from last lap heartache for Andrew Jordan as a puncture prevented him from claiming victory in the opening BTCC race at Thruxton.

Neal kept pole-sitter Jordan honest throughout, however, and was perfectly poised to take the win when the front left tyre deflated on the Honda Civic ahead of him. A despondent Jordan, who also set the fastest lap of the race, eventually crawled home in 11th.

The Honda pair had long since pulled clear of a great battle between Jason Platos MG and an outstanding Tom Onslow-Cole in the VW Passat. What had looked like a fight for the final place on the podium became a scrap for second after Jordans misfortune. Plato did enough to hang on to the position as the chequered flag fell, whilst the impressive Onslow-Cole took the first ever podium for a VW in the two-litre era.

The race started in dramatic fashion when contact between Plato and reigning champion Gordon Shedden pitched the Honda Civic into the barrier on the entry to Seagrave. The racing incident left Jordan and Neal to streak away at the front of the order, whilst Plato held off team-mate Sam Tordoff in the early running.

Onslow-Cole had seen off the early attention from Colin Turkingtons BMW and immediately set about closing down Tordoff ahead of him. After battling for a number of laps, the VW nipped by the MG thanks to a great move from Onslow-Cole at the final chicane on lap six.

A lonely Plato was joined by Onslow-Cole late on, but the ballast laden MG claimed valuable championship points with second. Tordoff took fourth ahead of Pirtek Racings Jeff Smith and eBay Motors Colin Turkington.

Airwaves Racing arguably had its most impressive race of the season so far with Mat Jackson and Aron Smith taking seventh and ninth respectively. Having started 13th on the grid, Jackson made a number of superb manoeuvres with his passes on the Toyotas of Adam Morgan and Frank Wrathall being particularly impressive. Similarly Smith also moved through the field and the two Ford Focuses showed good pace until the end of the contest with Jackson eventually finishing just over half a second behind Turkington.

Dave Newsham sandwiched his Toyota Avensis between the Airwaves Racing cars, whilst Ciceley Racings Adam Morgan completed the top ten order. Jack Goff took 12th in his Vauxhall Insignia behind the crawling Civic of Jordan.

The lead of the Jack Sears Trophy changed hands on several occasions after some absolutely thrilling racing down the order. Joe Girling (Chevrolet Cruze) led Lea Wood (Vauxhall Vectra) in the early running, but he then ran wide on the entry to Campbell immediately after Wood had nipped by across the start/finish line. Wood couldnt hang on, however, as the Ford Focus of Liam Griffin made his move to the summit late ona position that he wouldnt surrender.

 2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car ChampionshipThruxton - Race 1

1 2 Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) +0.0002 99 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing +6.663 3 6 Tom Onslow-Cole (PPCGB / Kraftwerk Racing) +7.5224 88 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) +9.5795 55 Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) +10.2056 29 Colin Turkington (eBay Motors) +14.803 7 7 Mat Jackson (Airwaves Racing) +15.454 8 17 Dave Newsham (Speedworks Motorsport) +15.899 9 8 Aron Smith (Airwaves Racing) +16.104 10 33 Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing) +16.735 11 77 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) +19.579 12 31 Jack Goff (RCIB Insurance Racing) +24.29813 5 Robert Collard (eBay Motors) +25.696 14 10 Daniel Welch (Welch Motorsport with Sopp + Sopp) +30.506 15 11 Frank Wrathall (Dynojet) +31.230 16 48 Ollie Jackson (Speedworks Motorsport) +34.999 17 20 James Cole (RCIB Insurance Racing) +49.959 18 14 Will Bratt (WIX Racing) +50.617 19 13 Rob Austin (WIX Racing) +53.876 20 66 Liam Griffin (Addison Lee Motorbase) +54.676 21 43 Lea Wood (Wheel Heaven / Houseman Racing) +55.845 22 12 David Nye (Welch Motorsport with Sopp + Sopp) +1:01.17723 90 Joe Girling (M247 Racing with Tech-Speed Motorsport) +1:01.911 24 18 Nick Foster (eBay Motors) +1:06.255 25 1 Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa Racing) +1:20.151

Not Classified- 39 Warren Scott (Team BMR Restart) +2 Laps- 15 James Kaye (AmDTuning.com) +8 Laps