Good Night Vauxhall!
A crowd of 14,500 people turned up to enjoy the spectacle of the first night race of this year’s www.theAA.com MSA British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone Circuit, which witnessed an impressive display by the Vauxhall Astra Coupés.

Qualifying
The afternoon qualifying session produced yet another clean sweep of the front row for the Vauxhalls of Yvan Muller and Jason Plato, with the Frenchman claiming his second double pole position in a row. Muller, who is currently leading the BTCC, was looking good to continue his winning streak and extend his twelve point lead over second place James Thompson.

The Production Category produced a similar story with two team-mates claiming the front row. Championship leader Simon Harrison claimed P1 with Roger Moen in second. Harrison currently leads the BTC Production Class by six points over nearest rival James Kaye of Barwell Motorsport.

Sprint Race
A thirty second time gap separated the BTC Touring category from the Production teams. The race resulted in the two HTML Peugeots holding off the might of Jason Plato’s Touring car, who after being forced to play catch up from the start, was unable to catch the Production Peugeots.

Plato did however, win the Touring category. After making a fairly disappointing start by his own admission, he very quickly fought back and began to make his presence felt by team-mate Muller. It could be argued that Muller had a slight disadvantage by carrying extra success ballast, but the cars appeared to be evenly matched throughout the majority of the race. Plato overtook the Frenchman on Lap 5 to win the BTC Touring Race. The result moves him into second place in the drivers championship, twelve points behind team-mate Muller. James Thompson brought the Team Egg Sport Astra home in third following an exciting battle with team-mate Phil Bennett. With the Peugeots of Eaves and Soper close behind, Round 7 produced what was arguably some of the closest racing this season within the Touring category.

Plato commented: “I didn’t have a great start but I did OK. I didn’t want to risk anything by having a lightning start. There is nothing between the cars at the moment – we had some good close racing.”

Team-mate Muller added: “We tried to change a few things on the car but I’m not too sure where we are at the moment. I continued to have a few problems with understeer which I had through qualifying but hopefully that will be sorted before the start of the next race.”

The early evening Sprint Race saw Simon Harrison extend his lead in the BTC Production class after capitalising on a mistake from team-mate Moen, who out-braked himself on Lap 11.

The HTML squad led the field from the start but it wasn’t without incident for the Silverstone based team. A thrilling battle developed between the two Peugeots and the Alfa Romeo of Gavin Pyper, before Pyper spun at Becketts, leaving a clear track for the HTML Peugeots.

Harrison now leads the Production Championship by 19 points at the end of Round 7. He commented: “It was flat from out start to finish. Roger (Moen) was going really quickly and I just had to stay with him. If he hadn’t made that little mistake, I don’t think I would have passed him.”

It was a first visit to the podium for third placed Production driver Paul O’Neill in his Tech-speed prepared Peugeot 306. He held third place for the majority of the race but was pressured all the way by GR Motorsport’s Matt Jackson and had to defend in order to secure his podium celebrations.

Feature Race
The rain tumbled for Round 8, forcing drivers to contend with dark, wet conditions throughout the thirty lap race. Yvan Muller made a good start from pole position to retain the lead going into the first corner. It wasn’t quite so easy for the Team Egg Astra of James Thompson and the Peugeot of Steve Soper, who both ran wide at Copse and fell heavily down the field. Muller was nose to tail with team-mate Plato for much of the first sector of the race and it became clear that the pit stops would be crucial for both drivers. It was the Team Egg Sport Astra of James Thompson that pitted first on Lap six – a decision that would help him gain placings later on in the race.

By Lap 7, Muller was beginning to pull away with a one and a quarter second gap separating the Frenchman from Plato. Plato ran into further problems at Abbey when the Astra missed a gear and went onto the grass, but a fantastic eight second pit stop on Lap 11 meant that the Oxford based driver was able to rejoin the track in a fighting position. It was the turn of race leader, Yvan Muller, to pit next but the team encountered problems in getting the car up on the jacks which subsequently cost the Frenchman the lead in the race. More misery was to follow for the Championship leader when he was administered a drive through penalty due to the team being in the Pit Lane for more than the allowed 90 seconds.

Muller commented: “I’m disappointed because I think I was quickest in this race. I was long enough in the first pit stop without having to come in again – but that’s motor racing and you just have to accept it sometimes.”

The ABG Motorsport Lexus of Kurt Luby to the lead which he promptly handed back to Plato two Laps later after coming in to pit. Plato had the race in his hands for the remaining Laps and went on to take his second chequered flag of the day. The win promotes Plato to second place in the drivers standings.

He said:” I went off at Abbey because I caught a neutral in the gearbox and off I sailed – my mistake really. It was also a shame what happened to Yvan because I’m sure that without that it would have been neck and neck to the end and a super race! A win is a win though and It’s a real turn around from where we were at Oulton Park”

A brilliant drive from Team Egg Sport driver Phil Bennett produced his best result of the year so far. Bennett completed a practically faultless race which placed him second.

He explained: “I’m really pleased with today. I’ve never driven round Silverstone in the wet before so it was a bit of a learning process really. I managed to stay with Jason and Yvan quite well but I lost touched with them when I made a mistake at Becketts. I just settled down and got on with it really and was pleased to finish second.”

Muller managed to recover enough to finish third and collect ten valuable points which means he retains his lead in the drivers championship. He now leads Plato by nine points.

In the Production category, the action was as fraught as ever. A spectacular battle developed between the two HTML drivers (Harrison and Moen) and Barwell Motorsport James Kaye. Moen led Kaye for much of the race before making the same mistake at Becketts as he made in the Sprint Race. The Norwegian just managed to defend his position from Kaye but spent the majority of the race nose to tail with the Honda Accord. A driver induced error saw Moen off again at Becketts, this time it was Harrison that gained the advantage as Kaye missed a gear which forced the car to slow down at Islands. Harrison took the lead but both Kaye and Moen were close behind and Moen eventually took the lead on the second to last Lap when Harrison lost speed due to gearbox problems. Moen went on to win the race with Kaye in second. Harrison managed to limp home in third and retains the lead in the Drivers Championship.

Moen said: “It was a difficult race and I had a great challenge with James (Kaye) but it was great to win, as five laps from the end, I didn’t think I would do it. It’s claimed a little bit back after my previous bad luck at Oulton Park so I’m happy!”

Kaye was jubilant with his second place: “It was fantastic. It was good clean racing and good fun. The Peugeots have a power advantage but I think I have a handling advantage with the Honda Accord. I really enjoyed it.”

To keep the crowd entertained a variety of sideshows were provided, including stunt driver Russ Swift, famed for getting cars up on two wheels. There was also a team of motorcycle stunt riders, who were very entertaining!

Rounds Nine and Ten of the www.theAA.com MSA British Touring Championship heads to Mondello Park in Ireland on the 16th/17th June.