Matt Neal wins thrilling first race at Knockhill

Honda Racing Team’s Matt Neal kept his nose clean to win a thrilling first race at Knockhill, with championship contenders Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan retiring amid a host of on-track clashes.

Neal passed long-time leader Sam Tordoff at Clark’s on lap 19 and held off Rob Austin’s Audi A4 in the final stages to take the win, but the final classification only told half of the story in what could be a pivotal race in the title fight.

Triple Eight’s Tordoff pulled off from second, under a safety car triggered when West Surrey Racing’s Turkington was turned into the gravel trap at Scotsman on lap 18, following a chain reaction between Jason Plato and Mat Jackson.

Turkington had out-dragged Plato out of the hairpin and got ahead into Duffus Dip, but he got out of shape into Leslie’s, and the concertina effect between the trio saw the 2009 champion come off worst.

This followed a similar incident between Eurotech Racing’s Jordan and Neal’s team-mate Gordon Shedden, when Jordan passed the Scot into Duffus Dip on lap 14, before the two made contact into Scotsman’s. Shedden spun and slid into Jordan, breaking the reigning champion’s left-front wheel.

Austin followed Neal home, but was another driver cursing his luck after an incident with Shedden at Clark’s on lap 11, where the pair made contact and the Audi A4 fell to fifth.

Behind the top two, Shedden came through his drama-packed race to take third, with Jackson a strong fourth for Motorbase Performance. Plato held on for fifth, after spending much of the race as the stopper in the bottle of a long line of cars.

Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan carved through the field to sixth from 18th on the grid, heading a quartet of drivers making up several positions on their grid slots. The next three were Tom Ingram, Aron Smith and Dave Newsham, while Nick Foster completed the top 10.

The opening laps gave little indication of the chaos to follow, with all 31 cars making it through the opening series of corners cleanly. The first serious action came on lap four, when Shedden put a demon move on Jordan at the hairpin, before Rob Collard span Lea Wood around at the same spot.

Then a battle between Robb Holland and Chris Stockton came to an abrupt end on lap eight, when the pair made contact at Scotsman’s, and Dan Welch flew over the kerb in avoidance and clobbered the Audi, causing both cars to retire.

Turkington passed Jackson around the outside of the hairpin on lap 10, his BMW 125i demonstrating its tremendous traction, before the incident between Shedden and Austin shook the order up again.

The third West Surrey Racing machine of Nick Foster span United Autosports’ Glynn Geddie around at the hairpin on lap 13, before the flurry of laps which saw Jordan and Turkington retire.

With Tordoff dropping out of the equation after the safety car, it was left to Austin to close on Neal, but he couldn’t prevent the Midlander taking his first win since Croft 2013.