TITLE RACE COMES DOWN TO THOMPSON, MULLER & REID
Vauxhall’s James Thompson and Luke Hines and SEAT Sport
UK’s Robert Huff were the winners of today’s three
Green Flag British Touring Car Championship rounds at Snetterton,
Norfolk. The title race will now go down to the wire –
at Donington Park, Leicestershire on 26 September –
between Thompson and Vauxhall team-mate Yvan Muller. Thompson,
who won the title in 2002, holds a four-point lead over reigning
champion Muller at the top of the standings. Anthony Reid,
the leader of the HarrierZeuros Independents Trophy in WSR’s
MG, is statistically the only driver who can stop them.
Thompson led the first of today’s races all the way
from pole position. It followed his domination of both free
practice sessions and qualifying on Saturday when he set the
fastest ever lap for a current BTCC car around Snetterton.
With Muller, his car’s set-up not to his liking, finishing
only fifth, it meant Thompson turned a three-point deficit
to the Frenchman into a nine-point lead heading into the day’s
second race.
Finishing behind Thompson, after each had found a way past
the struggling Muller, were Computeach Racing with Halfords'
Matt Neal, Team Honda’s Tom Chilton and WSR’s
Colin Turkington. Neal’s second place in his Honda ensured
him of Independents Trophy victory.
Meanwhile, Reid took eighth place to move a point past SEAT’s
Jason Plato and back into third in the championship. Plato
finished out of the points in 11th having had to start from
the pit lane at the tail of the field after his car’s
driveshaft broke on the warm-up lap. His mechanics performed
miracles to replace it inside five minutes, but he could not
make it into the top ten. Finishing 12th was team-mate Huff,
his Toledo’s pace compromised by the maximum ballast
it was carrying following his dramatic, maiden BTCC win at
Brands Hatch a fortnight earlier.
Taking tenth and securing pole position for the second race
thanks to the BTCC’s top ten reversed grid rule was
Vauxhall’s Luke Hines. He cannily backed off on the
run to the line to allow Synchro Motorsport Honda driver James
Kaye past into ninth.
Hines took full advantage of his pole position to lead the
second race all the way. Significantly, having not won in
11 races, Vauxhall had suddenly gained two more victories
to take their tally for the season so far to ten.
Hines coolly resisted pressure to take the second BTCC win
of his career. Heading the pack behind was Reid, who had the
charging Plato closing on him in third having come through
from 11th on the grid. Muller finished fourth and Thompson,
his Astra laden with maximum success ballast, seventh after
finally getting the better of Huff and independent Vauxhall
driver Rob Collard. They took eighth and ninth places respectively,
the latter enjoying one of his most competitive days of 2004.
But the result meant Muller had now cut the championship gap
to Thompson to five points heading into the day’s third
race.
Huff and Neal would turn out to be the stars of race three.
Huff, Cambridge-based and racing in front of his home crowd,
was in inspired form and somehow, from eighth on the grid,
led by the end of an incredible opening lap. And there he
stayed to the chequered flag, despite constant pressure from
Muller and Thompson, who eventually fell away as they fought
over second position. Muller took the place, but Thompson
set the fastest lap – a new lap record – for a
bonus point. As a result, he leads Muller by four points at
the top of the championship heading to BTCC finals day at
Donington Park in three weeks.
Thompson said: “I’ve turned the tables on Yvan
and it’s not every day that happens. Historically, Donington
has always been good to me – I beat Yvan to the title
there in 2002 – and I’d rather be going there
ahead of him than behind. This weekend I got my car working
the best it’s been since the opening round at Thruxton
back in April and feel confident I can win back my crown.”
Muller, who beat Thompson to the championship in last year’s
final rounds, had few words to say about his chances. If he
wins the title, he will become the first back-to-back champion
in the BTCC’s two-litre era that started in 1991. But
said Muller: “I’m not thinking about it and don’t
really have anything to say. I’m fed up.”
Reid, who finished the third race in fifth, is the only driver
who can deny Thompson or Muller the crown. But it is a near-impossible
task – he is 48 points behind Thompson with only a maximum
of 52 available from the final three rounds. Reid, twice a
championship runner-up, said: “I’ve nothing to
lose so I have to go there with the intention of winning all
three races and hoping those two throw it away.
“Nobody has won all three races in a day, but we did
win twice at Knockhill in July. You just never know, although
to be honest I’m thinking more about making sure of
the Independents Trophy. If we beat the ‘king of the
independents’, Matt Neal and the Computeach Racing with
Halfords team, then it will have been a terrific achievement
by WSR.”
Neal’s chances of keeping up the pressure on Reid and
fellow WSR driver Colin Turkington at the head of the independents
standings took a knock in the second race. Neal retired with
a punctured tyre following a collision with the Hondas of
team-mate Dan Eaves and Kaye. But in the third race he bounced
back magnificently, scything his way through from 18th on
the grid to an eventual fourth as the leading independents
runner. He is now ten points behind second-placed Turkington
in the independents standings, but 29 adrift of runaway leader
Reid.
Neal’s fourth-place finish in the third race, however,
has hoisted him to just eight points behind Plato in the overall
championship. From third on the grid in the day’s final
race, Plato was badly delayed at the start and tumbled down
the order, eventually recovering to finish tenth and salvage
just one point. The 2001 title-winner can no longer become
champion, but continues to boast the highest number of wins
by any driver in 2004, with a current total of six to the
four each of Thompson and Muller.
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