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Matt Neal made it two wins from three for Honda's new British Touring Car Championship challenger, as he held off MG debutant Jack Goff in the Brands Hatch reverse-grid race.

The three-time champion produced a controlling performance to triumph in a race that featured race-one winner Rob Collard being turfed into the gravel at the start, race-two winner Gordon Shedden pitting with a mechanical problem and 2014 champion Colin Turkington spinning early on.

Poleman Rob Austin held his advantage at the start as Neal made what would prove to be a crucial pass on Goff for second off the line, before a safety car was required to deal with the extraction of Collard's stricken WSR BMW 125i M Sport.

At the restart Goff attacked Neal, but was rebuffed, and the duo quickly turned its attentions to pressuring Austin, who gamely fought them off until the final third of the race.

Neal got his Civic Type-R inside the Audi A4 through Clark Curve and made the pass stick into Paddock, before Goff slipped by Austin at Druids.

They then eased clear to engage in a close battle for the lead, which Neal won to go top of the BTCC points, level with Goff but ahead by virtue of the victory.

As they duked it out, Austin slipped back into the clutches of the charging Aron Smith, who was the top Team BMR Volkswagen in qualifying and race one and starred as he rose from the sixth row of the grid.

His progress was aided by a spin for Turkington at McLarens a couple of laps after the restart and Smith needed Austin and Andrew Jordan's MG to clash at Clearways to take the final podium spot.

That incident gave Jordan a puncture, forcing him to pit, while Austin dropped behind Smith and Sam Tordoff's WSR BMW, although he stayed ahead of Tom Ingram, who bagged another fine result for the Speedworks Motorsport team despite its Toyota Avensis managing just three laps of pre-season testing.

It was a tough race for Jason Plato, who started last following the left-front puncture that robbed him of the win in race two.

He was caught up in a multi-car incident at Druid on the opening lap, which also featured Derek Palmer Jr, Kieran Gallagher and Stewart Lines, before ending up 16th after a mid-race issue dropped him back down the order having fought through to the lower points position.

RACE THREE RESULTS - 27 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap 1 Matt Neal Honda Honda 25m10.270s 2 Jack Goff MG MG 0.196s 3 Aron Taylor-Smith Team BMR Volkswagen 1.706s 4 Sam Tordoff WSR BMW 4.553s 5 Rob Austin Rob Austin Racing Audi 4.719s 6 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 5.662s 7 Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes 7.537s 8 Andy Priaulx WSR BMW 8.825s 9 Dave Newsham Power Maxed Chevrolet 8.909s 10 Hunter Abbott Rob Austin Racing Audi 9.157s 11 Mike Bushell AmD Ford 11.771s 12 Colin Turkington Team BMR Volkswagen 17.558s 13 Martin Depper Eurotech Honda 21.188s 14 Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda 21.847s 15 Simon Belcher Handy Motorsport Toyota 24.415s 16 Jason Plato Team BMR Volkswagen 30.122s 17 Stewart Lines Houseman Racing Toyota 34.892s 18 Derek Palmer Jr. Infiniti Infiniti 38.336s 19 Andrew Jordan MG MG 1 Lap 20 Kieran Gallagher Team Hard Toyota 1 Lap - Alex Martin Team Parker Ford Retirement - Gordon Shedden Honda Honda Retirement - Aiden Moffat Aiden Moffat Racing Mercedes Retirement - Warren Scott Team BMR Volkswagen Retirement - Josh Cook Power Maxed Chevrolet Retirement - Rob Collard WSR BMW Retirement

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS

Pos Driver Points 1 Matt Neal 37 2 Jack Goff 37 3 Aron Taylor-Smith 36 4 Andy Priaulx 34 5 Gordon Shedden 32 6 Colin Turkington 30 7 Adam Morgan 27 8 Tom Ingram 26 9 Sam Tordoff 23 10 Rob Collard 21 11 Andrew Jordan 20 12 Rob Austin 20 13 Jason Plato 18 14 Hunter Abbott 11 15 Dave Newsham 8 16 Aiden Moffat 7 17 Mike Bushell 5 18 Josh Cook 5 19 Martin Depper 3 20 Jeff Smith 2 21 Simon Belcher 1



