Matt Neal, Jason Plato and Robert Huff were the winners of today’s three spectacular Green Flag British Touring Car rounds at Brands Hatch, Kent. SEAT Sport UK driver Huff’s victory his first in the BTCC and broadcast live on ITV1 was one of the most amazing in BTCC history as he fought through from fourth position to first in a manic last lap dash to the chequered flag as the leaders tripped up over themselves. Huff becomes the tenth different winner this season. In the title race, Vauxhall’s Yvan Muller has edged three points clear of team-mate James Thompson at the top of the championship as it heads to Snetterton, Norfolk in two weeks’ time. Plato has moved to third past Anthony Reid who endured a disastrous day.
Computeach Racing with Halfords Honda driver Neal led the first race all the way from pole position to record his third win of the season. He also set the race’s fastest lap to take a maximum score and his win ensured him of HarrierZeuros Independents Trophy victory. Muller, who started alongside Neal on the front row of the grid, followed in second, while Thompson got past the sensational James Kaye, in the tiny Synchro Motorsport team’s Honda, to complete the podium finishers in third. The result meant Muller extended his championship lead over Thompson to three points heading into the day’s second race.
Starting it from pole position, thanks to the top ten reversed grid rule, would be Colin Turkington. The WSR MG driver actually finished the first race in 11th, but officials judged that he had been unfairly shoved out of the way at the final corner by VX Racing Junior Tech-Speed’s Michael Bentwood and gave him back the place.
Turkington led the race early on, but former champion Plato, who had started second, was soon past and pulling away. The race was interrupted by two safety car periods but at both restarts Plato kept cool to ensure he stayed ahead and took his sixth victory of the season, plus the race’s fastest lap. Turkington held off the hard-charging Huff as they finished second and third respectively. Turkington’s second place gave him victory in the Independents Trophy. Behind, Thompson took fourth, but Muller was only eighth following a brush with Bentwood that saw the VX driver grab seventh. Thompson therefore moved into the championship lead by two points from Muller entering the day’s third race.
This race will go down as one of the BTCC’s all time classics and it all happened on the final lap. As in the second race, Turkington led the opening moments, but Plato again squeezed by and started to build a lead. By the time of a safety car period, Plato still led, but stacked up behind him now were Neal, Muller and Huff.
The safety car pulled off the track with just a lap to go, meaning the outcome of the race would be decided by a frantic 50-second sprint. At the restart, both Plato and Neal almost spun at the first corner, Paddock Hill Bend, and Muller dramatically dived between them both to lead on the run up the following straight. Into the next corner, Druids, and arch enemies Muller and Plato made contact and slithered wide enabling the opportunistic Huff, who had snuck past Neal, to take the lead. But it was still not over.
While Plato escaped in second, the delayed Muller was barged back down to fifth by the lurking Bentwood and the recovering Neal. Further round the lap, Thompson came off second best in a collision with independent runner Rob Collard’s Vauxhall Astra and slid off the track before rejoining in a lowly 12th.
But the race belonged to the ecstatic Huff. He said: "I came out of Druids and just thought ‘wow, I’m in the lead!’ I looked in my mirrors expecting some massive pressure into the final bend, but I was surprised to find myself so far ahead and I couldn’t believe Jason was still second. I knew so long as I got the car around the last corner I’d won. It is unbelievable. There is no way I expected that to happen going onto the last lap. I’ve almost lost my voice because I spent the slowing down lap screaming into my radio to the team." Huff and Team Petronas Syntium Proton’s Shaun Watson-Smith also scored a bonus point each for setting the equal fastest lap time during the race.
Plato’s second position ensured SEAT of its third 1-2 result of 2004, although officials later fined him and put penalty points on his competition licence for the last lap collision with Muller. Bentwood’s third position earned him the win in the Independents Trophy.
Fifth for Muller means he has regained his championship lead over Thompson the Frenchman now heads the Briton by just three points heading to Snetterton on 5 September, the BTCC’s penultimate meeting of the season before the finale at Donington Park on 26 September. Plato is up to third, but some 37 points off Muller with six rounds to go.
Finishing the third race in sixth was Reid, this his only points haul of the day. The WSR MG driver had arrived at Brands lying third in the standings but, with his car carrying maximum ballast following its win in the previous round, he could qualify only 15th fastest. He finished the first race out of the points in 12th and in the second retired after just one lap with suspension damage.
