BTC-Touring and Production Feature Race

The feature race started, as at Brands Hatch, with a rolling start for all cars from both classes. James Thompson slowed the field down as they entered the straight before hitting the power as he crossed the start-finish line. It was Thompson however, who made the best get-away, passing his fellow Vauxhall drivers to lead in to the first corner. It didn't last long though, as both passed him going in to the Complex. Roger Moen headed up the Production class, from O'Neill and Harrison, making it a trio of 306s at the front.

Lap five saw Production class runner Simon Harrison pull of to the grass at the approach to the chicane, and the exit of Paul O'Neill left Moen leading from the Barwell Honda Accords of James Kaye and Peter Cate in second and third positions respectively.

By lap eight, Muller, Thompson and Plato were all fighting for position, and it seemed unlikely that they would all emerge from Club in tact, but fortunately for all, they managed to resolve the situation without a major incident. The same lap also saw Steve Soper enter the pits with what would seem to have been Peugeot's main problem throughout the weekend - excessive tyre wear. His teammate Dan Eaves also retired from the race on the following lap.

On lap eleven, Plato and Muller, who had by this point managed to put a small gap between themselves and Thompson, came up on the back of the production field. Kurt Luby was the first of the Touring class cars to make his mandatory pit stop, although it had been decided before that due to the high levels of wear on the tyres, each driver would make to stops during the race. Luby's stop took a leisurely 21 seconds to complete.

Plato and Thompson were next to pit, leaving Muller to lead from Bennett, before the Frenchman came in on the next lap, allowing Bennett to claim an extra point for leading the race.

In amongst the action of the Touring class pit stops, Production leader Roger Moen slowed before coming in to the pits to retire. This left James Kaye to lead from Barwell teammate Peter Cate and the GR Motorsport Focus of Matt Jackson.

At the end of the first round of pit stops, Yvan Muller had moved ahead of Plato, and they remained in front of the Egg Sport pairing of Thompson and Bennett. On lap 19, and probably earlier than expected, Plato came in for his second pit stop. James Thompson was the next to come in, but a problem with the left front wheel nut meant that he spent considerably longer than he would've liked in the pit lane. For both Muller and Bennett, the stops went to plan, and back out on the track, the only change was that Bennett ended up ahead of Thompson.

In the Production class, things remained relatively unchanged at the front, with the top five consisting of Kaye, Cate, Jackson, Edwards Jnr, and Boardman. The order stayed the same until the chequered flag. There were also no further changes in the Touring field, although deserving of a mention is the 6th place overall on its first run out for the Lexus of Kurt Luby. Taking in to account the fact that the car is still incomplete in terms of parts, it was a very creditable debut effort for the ABG Motorsport team.