Works drivers Steve Soper and Dan Eaves qualified in 6th and 7th respectively for both the SPRINT and FEATURE race, still pushing the car to its limits. Despite their efforts, the Coupe was still not quite able to match the speed of the Vauxhall's, having benefited from their extended development programme.

The SPRINT race saw a good start from unmistakable brightly coloured Peugeot's, keeping a close tail on the front running Vauxhalls. However, the Production pack that followed 27 seconds behind made a four abreast assault on Clervaux corner, which resulted in an unlucky slide for Tom Boardmans, who careered off and landed himself and his Peugeot 306 out of the race. The safety car was promptly called upon, and the session was slowed for three laps while the stricken was cleared.

The driver's choice of different set up on the two Peugeot race cars made a noticeable difference. Dan Eaves passed team-mate Steve Soper after opting to start the race on a set of new front tyres, yet problems occurred as those same tyres become quickly worn, creating understeer on the number 22 Coupe. Soper's Coupe, then having superior traction, passed Eaves and maintained a higher speed throughout the rest of the race.

Eaves said: This was the right set up for me at the time to enable me to balance the car. Unfortunately the front tyres went off quickly, which created lots of understeer that made the car incredibly difficult to drive and unfortunately slow!'

The FEATURE race, in complete contrast to the dry and processional SPRINT race, saw a days worth of action built in to one hour. The rain that had been threatening for the majority of the morning suddenly struck in its usual way just before the touring cars headed out for their second race. This caused a slight set back to start time, as all touring teams needed to make a tyre change from full slicks to full wet tyres while on the starting grid.

Steve Soper had a tremendous start, launching himself into 4th position, ahead of the Egg:Sport Astra of the notorious Phil Bennett and the much-improved Lexus driven by Tommy Erdos. However, the increasingly greasy track and worsening visibility caused Soper to take a wide line at Tower corner as he struggled to control his Peugeot 406 Coupe, just managing to scramble back to the track and rejoin the race in 7th position.

Lap 14 saw the first of three appearances of the safety car. On this occasion it being due to the production Alfa Romeo of Gavin Pyper spinning off. After 3 laps the safety car withdrew allowing Soper's quick reactions to take advantage of an unsuspecting Phil Bennett and pass him on lap 18. Bennett decided to hit back and sideswiped the 406 but only managed to push Soper out of the way. Soper fought to hold the car on a steady line as he endurance a barrage of bumps and pushes from Phil Bennett, until the 406 Coupe could take no more. And when Bennett finally overtook the Peugeot, he added insult to injury for Soper when he braked suddenly behind the Lexus, causing a collision with the unsuspecting Soper who was following immediately behind.

Soper was left with extensive damage to the front of his car and after only one more lap, he voiced his concern over the radio for his rapidly rising oil and water temperature, the result of the disarranged front panel. This was the start of the second outing for the safety car and proved too much the number 44 Coupe, and Steve Soper was forced to pull into the pit lane and out of the race on lap 22.

Meanwhile further the back on the Touring grid; Dan Eaves was suffering major problems of his own. Eaves was struggling with bad under steer in all of the corners and finding it a real struggle to complete the race safely. Eaves powered on however and his hard work and cool head paid off as he completed the race in 5th position.

Vic Lee, Team Principal said: 'Consequently, since all the trouble with Phil Bennett, a one race ban for reckless driving is little compensation for the extensive damage his bad driving has caused. This was not a justified end to an excellent drive from Steve.'

Mick Linford, Motorsport Manager for Peugeot said: 'Once again the Peugeot team has suffered from Phil Bennett wild driving. The penalty of a single race ban seems too lenient considering this is the third time he has prevented Steve getting a good result. The damage that he has caused to our cars this year adds up to tens of thousands of pounds. Let us hope that he will now drive in a professional way like all the other drivers do, or is that too much to ask?'