Yvan Muller put in an impressive performance to take a comfortable victory in the fourth round of the championship, handing the Frenchman the championship lead. James Thompson made it a VX Racing lockout on the podium, while Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes rounded out the top five.

Race one winner Matt Neal started from pole position, but he was slow away from the line – his Honda Civic having gained 63kg in success ballast between races. This allowed Muller to power in to the lead, with Paul O’Neill moving up in to second from his second row grid spot. Anthony Reid took up third position whilst Neal slipped down to sixth. Independent driver Rob Collard made an impressive start, moving up from the back of the field to 7th position within the opening laps. Fellow indy Astra driver Gavin Pyper was not so fortunate however, being forced to retire after just 4 laps.

Muller went on to open up a comfortable lead, whilst Colin Turkington closed on O’Neill, having already passed his MG Sport & Racing team-mate Reid. James Thompson also made steady progress through the field, having not made the best of starts. It was not long before Turkington’s impressive pace saw him slip past O’Neill’s Astra.

Lap 14 saw the safety car deployed after the Production class Alfa Romeo of Chris Ryan made heavy contact with the pit wall entering the start/finish straight. The entire touring class field took advantage of this to make their mandatory pitstops. Four laps behind the safety car followed, but Muller resumed normal service the moment racing restarted. Turkington, lying in second, also got away well, before dropping back in to the clutches of O’Neill once more. James Thompson’s advance saw him up to third spot and closing on O’Neill and Turkington.

Turkington drove an impressive second half of the race to fend off the attacks of O’Neill, so much so that the VX Racing team, with just a handful of laps remaining, gave the order to let through Thompson so that the reigning champion could try his hand. As the trio exited the Druids hairpin on the penultimate lap, Thompson closed on Turkington and pulled the nose of his Astra alongside the MG. Contact followed through Graham Hill Bend, and both Thompson and O’Neill went through to take second and third positions respectively. Turkington was forced on to the grass and his race came to abrupt halt as he hit the tyre wall.

In the Production class, Michael Bentwood got the jump on Luke Hines at the start and the Edenbridge driver held the position throughout the race to take his third consecutive win. Team Varta’s Tom Boardman once again suffered considerable bad luck. He was unable to start the race after having his engine blow during the first race of the day, a problem compounded by not being able to select 3rd gear in his Peugeot 307.

Driver quotes to follow