Vauxhall’s James Thompson and Luke Hines and SEAT Sport UK’s Robert Huff were the winners of yesterday’s three Green Flag British Touring Car Championship rounds at Snetterton, Norfolk. The title race will now go down to the wire – at Donington Park, Leicestershire on 26 September – between Thompson and Vauxhall team-mate Yvan Muller. Thompson, who won the title in 2002, holds a four-point lead over reigning champion Muller at the top of the standings. Anthony Reid, the leader of the HarrierZeuros Independents Trophy in WSR’s MG, is statistically the only driver who can stop them.
Thompson led the first of Sunday’s races all the way from pole position. It followed his domination of both free practice sessions and qualifying on Saturday when he set the fastest ever lap for a current BTCC car around Snetterton. With Muller, his car’s set-up not to his liking, finishing only fifth, it meant Thompson turned a three-point deficit to the Frenchman into a nine-point lead heading into the day’s second race.
Finishing behind Thompson, after each had found a way past the struggling Muller, were Computeach Racing with Halfords' Matt Neal, Team Honda’s Tom Chilton and WSR’s Colin Turkington. Neal’s second place in his Honda ensured him of Independents Trophy victory.
Meanwhile, Reid took eighth place to move a point past SEAT’s Jason Plato and back into third in the championship. Plato finished out of the points in 11th having had to start from the pit lane at the tail of the field after his car’s driveshaft broke on the warm-up lap. His mechanics performed miracles to replace it inside five minutes, but he could not make it into the top ten. Finishing 12th was team-mate Huff, his Toledo’s pace compromised by the maximum ballast it was carrying following his dramatic, maiden BTCC win at Brands Hatch a fortnight earlier.
Taking tenth and securing pole position for the second race thanks to the BTCC’s top ten reversed grid rule was Vauxhall’s Luke Hines. He cannily backed off on the run to the line to allow Synchro Motorsport Honda driver James Kaye past into ninth.
Hines took full advantage of his pole position to lead the second race all the way. Significantly, having not won in 11 races, Vauxhall had suddenly gained two more victories to take their tally for the season so far to ten.
Hines coolly resisted pressure to take the second BTCC win of his career. Heading the pack behind was Reid, who had the charging Plato closing on him in third having come through from 11th on the grid. Muller finished fourth and Thompson, his Astra laden with maximum success ballast, seventh after finally getting the better of Huff and independent Vauxhall driver Rob Collard. They took eighth and ninth places respectively, the latter enjoying one of his most competitive days of 2004. But the result meant Muller had now cut the championship gap to Thompson to five points heading into the day’s third race.
Huff and Neal would turn out to be the stars of race three. Huff, Cambridge-based and racing in front of his home crowd, was in inspired form and somehow, from eighth on the grid, led by the end of an incredible opening lap. And there he stayed to the chequered flag, despite constant pressure from Muller and Thompson, who eventually fell away as they fought over second position. Muller took the place, but Thompson set the fastest lap – a new lap record – for a bonus point. As a result, he leads Muller by four points at the top of the championship heading to BTCC finals day at Donington Park in three weeks.
Thompson said: “I’ve turned the tables on Yvan and it’s not every day that happens. Historically, Donington has always been good to me – I beat Yvan to the title there in 2002 – and I’d rather be going there ahead of him than behind. This weekend I got my car working the best it’s been since the opening round at Thruxton back in April and feel confident I can win back my crown.”
Muller, who beat Thompson to the championship in last year’s final rounds, had few words to say about his chances. If he wins the title, he will become the first back-to-back champion in the BTCC’s two-litre era that started in 1991. But said Muller: “I’m not thinking about it and don’t really have anything to say. I’m fed up.”
Reid, who finished the third race in fifth, is the only driver who can deny Thompson or Muller the crown. But it is a near-impossible task – he is 48 points behind Thompson with only a maximum of 52 available from the final three rounds. Reid, twice a championship runner-up, said: “I’ve nothing to lose so I have to go there with the intention of winning all three races and hoping those two throw it away.
“Nobody has won all three races in a day, but we did win twice at Knockhill in July. You just never know, although to be honest I’m thinking more about making sure of the Independents Trophy. If we beat the ‘king of the independents’, Matt Neal and the Computeach Racing with Halfords team, then it will have been a terrific achievement by WSR.”
Neal’s chances of keeping up the pressure on Reid and fellow WSR driver Colin Turkington at the head of the independents standings took a knock in the second race. Neal retired with a punctured tyre following a collision with the Hondas of team-mate Dan Eaves and Kaye. But in the third race he bounced back magnificently, scything his way through from 18th on the grid to an eventual fourth as the leading independents runner. He is now ten points behind second-placed Turkington in the independents standings, but 29 adrift of runaway leader Reid.
Neal’s fourth-place finish in the third race, however, has hoisted him to just eight points behind Plato in the overall championship. From third on the grid in the day’s final race, Plato was badly delayed at the start and tumbled down the order, eventually recovering to finish tenth and salvage just one point. The 2001 title-winner can no longer become champion, but continues to boast the highest number of wins by any driver in 2004, with a current total of six to the four each of Thompson and Muller.
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