With Tom Chilton relegated to the back of the grid for race three following his earlier disqualification, Steven Kane would head the grid after the to seven places from race two were reversed.
Lining up alongside Kane would be Tom Boardman, who made a lightning start to jump in to the lead of the race, Kane wouldn’t let the SEAT driver get too far though as he stuck with him for the first two laps.
As the trio of Boardman, Kane and Jackson entered Westfield on lap three Kane made a move for the lead, unfortunately the maneuver failed and Jackson shot past both drivers to take the lead. Kane would make his move stick on the following lap as he passed Boardman at Paddock Hill.
With a brief safety car period to recover Arther Forster’s stricken BMW from Surtees, the gap to the leaders was closed up again. As racing resumed on lap eight both Rob Collard and James Nash would pass Boardman through Westfield.
As the leaders pulled away once again David Pinkney and Matt Neal were on a charge, passing Alex MacDowall on lap ten. With the gap at the front opening up again the safety car was once again called out, this time for marshalls to deal with two incidents.
The first of these incidents were a result of a coming together of the hard charging Tom Chilton and Chevrolet’s Alex MacDowall. Heavy contact at Paddock Hill Bend would see the Cruze tipped off in to the gravel with damaged suspension. At the following corner David Pinkney would head straight on at Druids after outbraking himself in a bid to defend his position from Matt Neal.
With the laps counting down Jackson was looking to secure his first place and managed the perfect restart as he crossed the start/finish line 1.466 seconds ahead of team-mate Kane.
Tom Boardman meanwhile was battling with Matt Neal between Surtees and Hawthorn, Neal would come out on top of this one with Andrew Jordan also slipping past Boardman. Neal and Nash would continue onwards with their next target in site – James Nash. Neal would pass the black Vectra of Nash in to Surtees with Jordan following not long after.
Tom Chilton was on a charge after starting from the back of the grid had managed to fight his way up to seventh by lap fifteen. Boardman was next on the list and would prove to be an easy target as the Focus used its superior power down the start/finish straight to out-drag the SEAT in to Paddock. Chilton would manage one final pass before the end of the race securing sixth place after a passionate drive from the back.
Matt Neal wasn’t going to give up the chase despite the race entering the closing stages and on the final lap muscled passed Kane at Sheene Curve, closing the gap to Matt Jackson to just 0.469 as the chequered flag fell.
With another weekend over the championship tables have closed up with Matt Neal and Jason Plato leaving Brands Hatch tied on 67 points each.
Photo credit: BTCC.net
