TITLES FOR NEAL, SEAT & TEAM HALFORDS AT SILVERSTONE
Gareth Howell brilliantly won two of today’s (Sunday)
final three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rounds
of 2006 at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, but
it was his team-mate Matt Neal who came away with the coveted
Drivers title, the most prestigious prize in UK motor sport.
There were also title celebrations for SEAT and Team Halfords
who respectively wrapped up the Manufacturers’ and Teams’
championship in front of an enormous 33,000 crowd –
confirmed by Silverstone as its largest race day attendance
this year for a car event after the British Formula 1 Grand
Prix.
Neal, from Droitwich, becomes the first driver since Chris
Hodgetts in 1987 to win back-to-back BTCC titles. He was able
to spray the winner’s champagne as well after finishing
first in the day’s second race – a result that
guaranteed Team Halfords of a clean sweep of victories. Neal
and Team Halfords had already successfully guaranteed themselves
of second consecutive Independents Trophy Drivers’ and
Teams’ titles.
The 39-year-old said: “I wish we could do this every
weekend, even though it’s been a very tough season.
The competition has been stronger than ever – SEAT,
Team RAC and Vauxhall and other teams all put together very
good efforts so to beat the lot of them for the second year
running makes it especially satisfying. It’s been pretty
fraught on occasion, but also a good fight to the end and
to be able to hold up the Champion’s Trophy thanks to
the tremendous work that everyone in the team has contributed
is a very special feeling. Winning the Teams’ title
on top is the least that they deserve.”
Finishing second and third in the championship, separated
by just a point in the end, are SEAT’s Jason Plato and
Colin Turkington, driving Team RAC’s bio-ethanol powered
MG ZS. Both drivers had arrived at Silverstone with a mathematical
chance of beating Neal, but the title was put beyond their
reach in the opening race.
Plato, from Oxford, was pleased to have at least led SEAT
to the Manufacturers’ trophy – an achievement
that ends five years of Vauxhall domination. The 2001 title-winner
said: “It’s a fantastic victory, bearing in mind
how much cruel luck we’ve had this season. Vauxhall
has had a stranglehold on that trophy since 2001 and it looked
like it would never change hands. But since entering the BTCC
in 2004, we’ve built in strength and depth, taken on
Vauxhall’s might and years of experience of racing in
the BTCC and done it. Everyone at SEAT should taste this success.”
Turkington, from Portadown, was content with his season’s
results. The 24-year-old, attempting to become the BTCC’s
youngest ever champion, was Neal’s closest challenger
up until Brands Hatch’s penultimate rounds three weeks
ago and today underlined his promise with a pair of second
place finishes behind double winner Howell.
The Northern Irishman added: “Losing out to Jason for
second by a point isn’t too disappointing – to
me, it’s either first or nothing anyway. Both Jason
and Matt are world class drivers so I take away a lot of satisfaction
to have been able to push them so hard during the season with
a team I really enjoy driving for and in the RAC colours.
It’s been great season for us.”
Round 28, 22 laps (36.058 miles)
Weather/Track: Overcast/Dry
Howell wins, Neal takes title
Howell led all the way from pole position to win for the second
time in his BTCC career, while behind fourth place for Neal
was enough for him to put the title beyond either Plato’s
or Turkington’s reach.
Plato, having qualified a lowly 13th, could finish only eighth.
Second position for Turkington was not enough to keep him
in the title hunt, but the result moved him to within five
points of Plato for the championship runner-up spot with the
final two rounds still to go.
Completing the top six behind fourth-placed Neal were SEAT’s
James Thompson and Team Halfords’ Gordon Shedden. However,
SEAT’s Darren Turner might well have finished among
this group had he not spun out of the race in a collision
with Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Meanwhile, Howell’s and Thompson’s results were
notable for they secured the coveted Teams’ and Manufacturers’
titles for Team Halfords and SEAT respectively.
Result:
1. Gareth Howell (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Integra, 22m40.400s
2. Colin Turkington (GBR), Team RAC/MG ZS, +2.100s
3. Tom Chilton (GBR), VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch,
+3.098s
Fastest Lap: Howell (GBR), 1m00.866s
Round 29, 14 laps (22.946 miles)
Weather/Track: Overcast/Dry
Champion Neal wins shortened race
In a restarted race, the newly-crowned Neal achieved his eighth
victory of the season, heading home team-mate Gordon Shedden
in a Team Halfords 1-2. Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi
pressured them both, but was unable to find a way through
and finished third.
The race had needed to be stopped after an accident involving
the SEATs of Plato and Thompson and Mike Jordan’s Team
Eurotech Racing with John Guest Honda Integra. Jordan was
subsequently airlifted to Coventry Hospital’s Neurological
Department with a head injury, but was later reported to be
making good progress.
Vauxhall’s Gavin Smith, competing with two broken ribs,
finished the race a brave fourth ahead of Team RAC’s
Robert Collard and race one winner Howell. A fine seventh
on his BTCC return was Tom Ferrier, driving the Motorbase
Performance team’s new SEAT Cupra Toledo.
Ninth-placed Jason Hughes was then drawn to start from pole
position on race three’s reversed grid in his Kartworld
MG. It meant for the first time in history that a bio-ethanol
powered car would start a BTCC race from pole with, alongside
it on the front row, the similarly-fuelled Vauxhall Astra
Coupe of Thurlby Motors with Tech-Speed’s Paul O’Neill,
who had finished race two in eighth.
Result:
1. Matt Neal (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Integra, 14m27.047s
2. Gordon Shedden (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Integra, +0.452s
3. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA), VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra Sport
Hatch, +0.700s
Fastest lap: Shedden, 1m00.859s (NEW LAP RECORD)
Round 30, 25 laps (40.975 miles)
Weather/Track: Overcast/Dry
Howell doubles up
From fourth on the grid, Howell quickly asserted himself in
the lead and, aided by the race’s fastest lap, stayed
there to win for the second time in a day. Following in a
close second after an astonishing drive from 18th on the grid
– following problems in race two – was Turkington.
Vauxhall’s Tom Chilton took third by holding off all
three SEAT drivers Plato, Thompson and Turner who completed
the top six. Collard, Ferrier, O’Neill and Smith rounded
out the top ten as Hughes fell away to an eventual 11th.
The result meant that Plato held onto second place in the
final championship standings by just one point from Turkington.
Despite falling off the track into retirement, Shedden remained
fourth in the championship. And although he finished a lap
down after making a pit stop to change a punctured tyre, Giovanardi’s
third place in race two had still proved enough to give him
fifth overall by a point from Thompson.
Result:
1. Gareth Howell (GBR), Team Halfords/Honda Integra, 28m09.575s
2. Colin Turkington (GBR), Team RAC/MG ZS, +0.966s
3. Tom Chilton (GBR), VX Racing/Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch,
+5.129s
Fastest lap: Howell, 1m01.070s
Final BTCC points after Silverstone (provisional):
Drivers:
1. Matt NEAL 289pts
2. Jason PLATO 241pts
3. Colin TURKINGTON 240pts
4. Gordon SHEDDEN 204pts
5. Fabrizio GIOVANARDI 163pts
6. James THOMPSON 162pts
7. Tom CHILTON 139pts
8. Gavin SMITH 123pts
9. Robert COLLARD 97pts
10. Mike JORDAN 91pts
Manufacturers:
1. SEAT 572pts
2. Vauxhall 528pts
Teams:
1. Team Halfords 512pts
2. SEAT Sport UK 418pts
3. VX Racing 386pts
4. Team RAC 332pts
5. Eurotech/John Guest 93pts
6. Motorbase Performance 74pts
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