MULLER STRETCHES LEAD WITH VICTORY DOUBLE
Vauxhall’s Yvan Muller moved 20 points clear at the
head of the Green Flag MSA British Touring Car Championship
at Thruxton today (Monday) after victory in both rounds five
and six of the series. GA Motorsports’ Gavin Pyper and
Synchro Honda Racing’s James Kaye shared the Hilton
Independents Trophy spoils, while Team Varta’s Tom Boardman
was a double winner in the championship’s Production
class.
Muller’s two wins were achieved against the odds for
the Frenchman had gone into both races with his Astra Coupe
weighed down by maximum success ballast.
In the first race, Muller fended off the fast-closing Honda
Civic Type-R of Matt Neal who tried a brave overtaking move
around the outside into the final corner, the Club Chicane.
Neal had led Muller during the first half of the race but
their positions were reversed during the tyre change pit stops.
Despite Neal’s late bid for victory, Muller held his
nerve to cross the line first.
In the second race, Neal again led Muller away from the start
but a puncture at high-speed sent him of the track. He made
a pit stop for repairs but would cross the line a dejected
11th, his title hopes having suffered a further blow. His
loss was once more Muller’s gain, the Vauxhall driver
taking over the lead and holding it to the chequered flag.
His nearest challenger was again a Honda, that of Alan Morrison
whose second place finish has moved him up to fourth in the
points standings behind Muller and his Vauxhall team-mates
James Thompson and Paul O’Neill. Morrison’s second
place also followed an inspired comeback drive in the day’s
first race in which he finished fifth after a drive-through
penalty for jumping the start had dropped him almost to last.
Muller, although surprised to have won twice, was delighted
with his day. “I never thought we would be able to do
this,” said the Frenchman. “My goal was to make
sure I had James covered to keep in front in the championship,
not necessarily win the races.
“My team’s pit work was fantastic. In the second
pit stop they almost caught me out as they were so quick!
Obviously, two wins are perfect. Silverstone is next and I
think there the ballast will be more difficult to overcome.”
O’Neill, like Muller, was also on the podium twice,
with two third place finishes. He stays third in the championship
but has closed considerably on reigning champion Thompson
in second who came away from Thruxton with fourth and fifth
place finishes. Their results enabled Vauxhall to increase
their already substantial lead in the manufacturers and teams’
championships.
The first race’s opening laps were held behind the
Safety Car following a collision that eliminated Hilton Independents
Trophy leader Rob Collard’s Vauxhall Astra Coupe, the
MG ZSs of Anthony Reid and Warren Hughes and unfortunate Production
class front-runner Jim Edwards’ Team Varta Honda Accord.
Collard’s demise enabled rival Gavin Pyper, in GA Motorsports’
Astra Coupe, to take Independents Trophy victory and with
it the championship lead. With Collard out of action for the
rest of the day, Pyper looked the favourite to take a second
Independents win in round six, but when his car’s engine
refused to start the way was open for Synchro’s James
Kaye to take a comfortable victory, his second of the season.
The result means it is Kaye who leaves Thruxton with the lead
of the Independents Trophy, just three points ahead of Pyper,
with Collard third and Team Halfords’ Dan Eaves and
Carl Breeze close behind in fourth and fifth in their Peugeot
307s. After second and third place Independents finishes in
the first race, both missed an opportunity to move further
up the leaderboard with retirements from the second.
MG experienced a day of mixed fortunes. While Colin Turkington
avoided the first race melee to bring his ZS home eighth,
the team had hoped for much more and, in the second, fourth
and sixth positions for Reid and Hughes were indications of
what might have been achieved earlier in the day. For the
record, Hughes set the fastest lap in the second race. MG
remain third in the manufacturers and teams’ championships
behind second-placed Honda, whose points tally was further
boosted by Tom Chilton’s seventh and 10th places, although
the latter could have been a sixth had his car not faltered
on the final lap.
Proton also continued to add to their score, the second race
proving their most productive of the day as drivers David
Leslie and Phil Bennett crossed the line eighth and ninth.
Meanwhile, there were tears of joy in the Team Varta camp
at the end of the first race as Tom Boardman took his and
the squad’s maiden Production class victory, his Peugeot
307 proving unbeatable around Thruxton’s high-speed
lay-out. Its speed was underlined when Boardman qualified
on Production class pole position and set the fastest lap
in class in both races.
Barwell Motorsports’ Luke Hines followed Boardman home
in second in both races in his Honda Civic Type-R, although
fourth and third places for Michael Bentwood in Edenbridge
Racing’s BMW 320i have kept him top of the leaderboard.
However, third and fourth places in class for Alan Blencowe
have helped move Barwell past Edenbridge into the lead of
the Production teams’ championship, with Team Varta
following them up into second, their cause aided by Edwards’
fifth position in the second race, his mechanics having repaired
his car in time for the start.
Although they celebrated an Independents Trophy win, GA did
not enjoy such a good time in the Production class, with driver
Paul Wallace twice retiring their Alfa Romeo 156.
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