Round 5 - race report.

Yvan Muller left Thruxton a double race winner for the first time since Mondello Park in 2001 and in doing so increased his championship lead by 20 points over James Thompson thanks to two blistering performances at the Hampshire circuit.

It was the start of Race 1 that proved to be the main talking point of the day. Rob Collard in his privately entered Astra Coupe was involved in a horrendous crash at the first corner which also involved Gavin Pyper, the MG’s of Warren Hughes and Anthony Reid and the production class car of Jim Edwards Jnr. Contact from another car put Collard into a spin at Allard and he was powerless to prevent the subsequent impact of Warren Hughes collecting him at high speed. It was a frightening incident and the crowds on the banks fell silent before seeing the welcome sight of Collard clambering from his badly damaged car.

With the safety car deployed and several cars missing as a result of the accident, the top 3 at the end of the lap was Neal, Muller and Thompson.

The restart of the race at lap 7 came with the news that Honda Racing’s Alan Morrison had received a drive through penalty for creeping on the grid. Morrison duly obliged and took his punishment at the end of the lap. The safety car period had allowed Gavin Pyper to close on the remaining MG ZS of Colin Turkington and on lap 9 the Touring Class graduate snuck past Turkington at Campbell.

Neal and Muller stretched out a slight gap from the 3rd placed car of James Thompson, who had team-mate Paul O’Neill for close company in 4th. Paul Wallace was forced to retire his production class Alfa Romeo at the end of lap 10 thanks to an engine failure.

Thompson was first to pit as the window opened, with O’Neill, Tom Chilton and David Leslie following suit on lap 12. The pace of Neal and Muller was relentless and it was clear that the race would be won or lost in the pit lane. Muller stopped first on lap 13 with VX racing pulling off a super turn around, while Neal chose to stay out for a lap. The pressure was on at Honda Racing and Neal’s stop was not quick enough for him to retain his lead - Neal helplessly watching Muller and Thompson streak past him as he exited the pit lane.

Thompson seemed to be struggling throughout the weekend in the practice and qualifying sessions, and it was no surprise when both Neal and O’Neill passed the reigning champion on lap17. With just 7 laps remaining, Neal had much to do if he was to stand any chance of catching Muller. But catch Muller he did. The gap visibly descended lap after lap and it seemed likely that it would be one of the closest finishes of the season so far. Unflustered, Muller kept Neal at bay to take the flag by just 0.581 seconds to claim the win. Paul O’Neill clung on to 3rd, earning another popular podium, with Gavin Pyper taking the Independent class honours and Tom Boardman securing his and the Peugeot 307’s maiden victory in the production class.

Yvan was quick to praise his pit crew, saying, “That was a fantastic race but it was very hard. I had a small problem with the gear lever, which disturbed me a little bit, but the team did a fantastic stop and then I took lead. I was pushing really hard but at the same time I wanted to conserve my tyres.

On the final lap when Matt was very close, I was thinking about the Brands Hatch incident with O'Neill a few weekends ago. But I think Matt has also thought about it as well. I was wondering if he’d try to take me at the chicane. I was looking out for him!”

Matt Neal said, “The car felt really strong the first couple of laps. I got a bit of a lead and then Yvan was better under braking into last chicane and I lost advantage. We had a delay during the pit stop and we went to third. The new set of tyres were good so I managed to catch Thompson by really throwing the hammer down and then I overtook him and caught Yvan. I tried to have a stab at Yvan on the last lap but it wasn’t meant to be. If I’d had an extra couple of laps, I’d have got him!”

O’Neill was delighted with third, “The tyres were really good. We ran a lot of camber and we did a few race runs yesterday and the car is great. The only problem we are having is with the kerbs. We’re bending the rims but I didn’t have a puncture in that race. The tyres were going off towards the end but that’s due to the ballast we are running.”

Asked about the incident involving Rob Collard, Gavin Pyper defended accusations that it was his fault, “Rob Collard tried to smash me off the track. He kept hitting me and eventually he hit me so many times that he span himself off. I can’t possibly see how that is my fault.”