Brands Hatch
Race 3Introduced new for the season was a brand new random way of picking how many positions would be reversed for the race three grid. Instead of the cards they had in 2006 they have gone for the BTCC Race 3 Pole Position Wheel of Fortune! Jason Plato as race 2 winner spun the wheel of fortune and got Fabrizio Giovanardi on pole. The pole didn't actually help the Italian a whole lot as he fluffed the start. By him went Matt Neal who made a great getaway and Adam Jones in his SEAT. Turkington made his best start of the weekend and also got by Giovanardi for third place. Midway through lap one, John George spun off by himself. This brought the safety car out.
The work crews however managed to bump start George's car and it got going again. The safety car went back in after a single lap much to the surprise of most of the field. Matt Neal had been paying attention though and got a good restart, second place Adam Jones though had been caught out and immediately a gap of two seconds opened up between Neal and Jones. Darren Turner attempted to Tom Chilton, the Vauxhall went off and lost a few places to Turner, Mat Jackson and Jason Plato at Clearways.
Giovanardi had recovered from his woeful start and began to harass the back of Turkington's BMW. The Vauxhall managed to get alongside Turkington out of Graham Hill Bend and went through up the inside of Surtees to get third. Turkington was then under pressure from Darren Turner. The SEAT had less success ballast and wasted no time in looking for a way to get by. However Turner was far too ambitious in his move to get by Turkington. Braking too late into Clearways, he nerfed Turkingtonhard from behind sending the BMW into the gravel where it promptly beached itself. With Turkington's car in a dangerous position the safety car was once again deployed.
On this restart Adam Jones was far more alert and was right on Neal's tail as they crossed the line. Jones looked for a way to pass the Civic but Neal used his experience to keep the door firmly shut on Jones. Too firmly shut as it turned out as Jones lost some momentum in trying to pass Neal he slipped back into the clutches of Giovanardi who dived up the inside of Jones at Paddock Hill Bend to take second place. Neal much preferred having Jones behind him to Giovanardi.
Little mistakes began to slip into Jones' driving and coming out of Clearways one lap the Toledo ran wide, in an instant Turner and Jackson were upon him slipping up the inside into Paddock Hill Bend with Jason Plato following through into the Druids hairpin. Jones would be kicking himself for making such a small yet costly error. Mat Jackson though was having another excellent and had Darren Turner's SEAT in his sights. Jackson had been targetting the second works SEAT drive for this season himself but after it became clear that Darren Turner would get the nod Jackson had been forced to go the privateer route with his family run team. It must have been great for him to see he was faster than the SEAT. Hanging onto the back of Turner, Jackson managed to slip up the inside of the SEAT at Brabham and use the BMW power to out drag him down the pit straight, taking third place into Paddock Hill Bend.
In the race lead, Matt Neal could just about hold his own against Giovanardi who simply couldn't quite get close enough to find a way by. So Matt Neal took a surprising victory for a car that no one had expected to being winning so quickly. Giovanardi got second ahead of Mat Jackson who was happy not to be disqualified this time. However someone was disqualified from this race; Darren Turner. While had had crossed the line in 4th place his move on Turkington was judged to be bad enough to warrant being disqualified. So team mate Jason Plato was promoted to 4th ahead of an impressive Adam Jones. Tom Onslow-Cole was 6th having taken the spot from Tom Chilton at Clearways right at the end of the race. Mike Jordan recovered well from his retirement in race 2 to get 8th place ahead of the two Motorbase SEATs of Gareth Howell and Matt Allison.
1. Matt Neal
Team Dynamics Honda Civic2. Fabrizio Giovanardi
VX Racing Vauxhall Vectra3. Mat Jackson
Jacksons Motorsport BMW 320si4. Jason Plato
SEAT Sport UK SEAT Leon5. Adam Jones
GR Asia SEAT Toledo6. Tom Onslow-Cole
West Surrey Racing BMW 320si7. Tom Chilton
VX Racing Vauxhall Vectra8. Mike Jordan
Team Eurotech Honda Integra9. Gareth Howell
Motorbase Performance SEAT Toledo10. Matt Allison
Motorbase Performance SEAT Toledo
11. Martyn Bell
Geoff Steel Racing BMW 320i12. Jason Hughes
Kartworld Racing MG ZS13. Dave Pinkney
A-Tech Alfa Romeo 15614. Fiona Leggate
Kartworld Racing MG ZS15. Erkut Kizilirmak
Tech-speed Motorsport Vauxhall Astra16. Simon Blanckley
Graham Hathaway Engineering Honda Integra17. Richard Marsh
A-Tech Alfa Romeo 15618. Rick Kerry
Team AFM Racing BMW 120d19. John George
TH Motorsport Honda IntegraDNF. Jim Pocklington
J-Team Motorsport BMW 320iDNF. Gordon Shedden
Team Dynamics Honda CivicDNF. Chris Stockton
BTC Racing Lexus IS200DNF. Colin Turkington
West Surrey Racing BMW 320siDNS. Nick Leason
BTC Racing Lexus IS200DNS. Eoin Murray
Quest Racing Alfa Romeo 156DSQ. Darren Turner
SEAT Sport UK SEAT LeonFastest Lap: Mat Jackson 49.789s
Drivers' Championship Standings:1. Jason Plato 41
2. Matt Neal 32
3. Colin Turkington 25
4. Tom Chilton 19
5. Fabrizio Giovanardi 17
6. Adam Jones 15
7. Mat Jackson 14
8. Mike Jordan 11
9. Tom Onslow-Cole 11
10. Darren Turner 9
11. Gareth Howell 4
12. Gordon Shedden 3
13. Matt Allison 3
14. Chris Stockton 1
Teams' Championship Standings:1. SEAT Sport UK 46
2. VX Racing 36
3. West Surrey Racing 35
4. Team Dynamics 34
5. GR Asia 15
6. Jacksons Motorsport 13
7. Team Eurotech 11
8. Motorbase Performance 7
9. BTC Racing 1
Scratchit: But he's a cripple!
Blackadder: He's not a cripple, Mrs Scratchit. Occasionally saying "Phew! My leg hurts!" when he remembers to wouldn't fool Baldrick!