James Thompson took victory in round seven of the 2003 Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship to continue the winning streak for VX Racing. However it was Honda Racing’s Matt Neal who led the majority of the race, suffering an unfortunate engine failure just 4 laps from the chequered flag. Current championship leader, Yvan Muller, claimed second position, with Colin Turkington taking the first podium finish of the year for MG Sport & Racing.

As the race got underway, it was Matt Neal who led out of the first corner, getting the jump on Thompson’s ballasted Astra Coupe. Thompson slipped back past and fended off Neal’s Honda for just over a lap, before conceding the position as the pair went through Abbey corner on lap two. Warren Hughes and Colin Turkington held their grid spots at the start of the race to complete the top five.

Over the course of the opening laps, a fierce battle developed for 8th position between O’Neill, Pyper, Howell and Chilton. It was Gavin Pyper, lapping quicker than anyone else on track, who made the position his own. The others continued to battle as Pyper set about catching the MG of Anthony Reid in 7th.

Early race casualties were Phil Bennett (Team PSP) and Rob Collard in the Independent Astra, neither of which made it pas the first corner. Bennett was the victim of contact, and unable to rejoin after spinning. Collard’s run of bad luck continued, as the mysterious problem, which dogged him in qualifying, reared its head once more. He commented, “I don’t know what we have to do. I just had no power and couldn’t get going. I came in to the pits and we thought we’d fixed it, but as soon as the car got back up to race temperature, it came back again. I’d like to be able to get past the first 200yds of a race!”

The obligatory pitstops got underway at the end of lap 11, and went without incident for the majority of the front runners. Team Dynamics driver Gareth Howell was one of those who suffered most in the pitlane – a problem with the front left wheel seeing him stationary for 16 seconds and dropping him right out of contention. Team PSP’s David Leslie also encountered problems, being hit by Anthony Reid and forced to retire from the race as a result. Leslie commented, “The person leaving their pit should give way. He (Reid) drove straight in to me and broke the steering on the car.” Reid was given a drive-through penalty for his part in the incident.

Racing at the front resumed in the same order following the conclusion of the pitstops and Neal looked to be comfortable in the lead. Lap 23 saw disaster strike as Neal’s engine stopped, and the Civic Type-R slowly pulled off the track. Thompson assumed the lead with Muller taking up second. Warren Hughes was third, with Turkington fourth. Hughes then encountered problems of his own, with an intermittent problem seeing him lose power and a number of places.

After taking the chequered flag, James Thompson said, “I wasn’t expecting that. I just couldn’t keep Matt behind at the start of the race. The second set of tyres was better but Matt had the pace. It’s good to take the win though!”

Second placed Muller added, “It was a good race for me despite carrying so much weight. There was quite a gap between me and the two race leaders - James and Matt. I didn’t expect better than that before the race to be honest.”

MG’s Colin Turkington was pleased with the second podium finish of his BTCC career: “We haven’t had the greatest start to the season so it’s really good to get MG’s first podium. Warren (Hughes) seemed to have a problem at Luffield and then got it together before slowing again. Of course I was sad to see him pull over.

Gavin Pyper took victory in the Hilton Independents Cup, crossing the line in sixth position. In the Production class, Luke Hines took his first victory of the year in the Barwell Motorsports Honda Civic Type-R, ahead of Michael Bentwood and Alan Blencowe.