Henry Neal secured his third win of the season, to leave Saturday with an eight point lead atop the Dunlop Touring Car Trophy/TCR UK standings. The Team Dynamics stable made a lightning start, rocketing away from the competition to win by over 10 seconds to his nearest rival.
A dramatic start to the race saw Tim Docker, who had jumped up to fourth by the first corner, spun on the exit of Redgate cutting across the rest of the field. While all of the TCT field missed him, he was unfortunately collected by the VW Racing Cup car of Richard Gilbert, whose debris caused a red flag.
Docker would be unable to make the restart of the shortened 15 minute race, with the original order again set up giving Lewis Kent a second opportunity, having lost the lead on the first run down to the Old Hairpin.
This time though he had competition, with Sam Osbourne running around the outside of Redgate. Contact saw Osbourne pushed wide as Kent dropped to third behind Neal and Max Hart. Neal was not going to be asked twice, racing off into the lead, building a substantial gap up front.
Attention turned to the battle for second, as Hart put on the defensive display of his career to hold off Kent and the recovering Osbourne. The BTCC-drivers pace shocked both series regulars and Hart was forced to get physical, as both ran wide at the chicane.
Kent and later Osbourne would find a way through with only a few minutes to run, but a technical failure on the final lap denied Osbourne the shot at a maiden TCT podium, pulling off on the grass. This allowed Kent to take a comfortable second ahead of the Maximum Motorsport driver whose qualifying-spec tyres had gone off in the closing stages.
Darrelle Wilson remained out of trouble, picking up fourth place, just 6.6 seconds back from Hart. Mark Wakefield finished fifth upon his return, completing the drivers to finish on the lead lap.
Unfortunately for Jeff Alden a technical issue meant he had to start from the pit lane for the first start. Recovering well, the Matrix Motorsport driver ran into unforeseen issues throughout, bringing his Honda Civic TCR home safely albeit three laps down.
Race Two will start at 13:50 on Sunday 18th October. All races will be streamed Live this weekend.
