Matt Neal won arguably the closest-fought race in recent British Touring Car Championship history, with the three-time champion emerging victorious in the Honda Civic Type-R from eighth on the grid.
The podium was completed by Sam Tordoff, who recovered impressively from a disappointing first race to minimise Neal’s gains on his championship lead, whilst Jason Plato hung on by the skin of his teeth to score the final podium position on Team BMR’s 100th start in the series.
It was Plato who led away from pole position by virtue of his win earlier in the day, but the double champion was quickly engaged by both the fast-starting Jack Goff and Subaru team-mate Colin Turkington.
Plato and Turkington worked together in the early stages to secure a Subaru Levorg 1-2 on the road, with Plato hampering Goff’s progress in key overtaking opportunities such as the final hairpin to allow the Ulsterman a chance to pass the IHG-backed BMW.
That left Goff in the clutches of championship leader Tordoff, who duly relieved his team-mate. Then Turkington took both of their podium positions in a single sweeping move heading down the main straight.
After an amount of dicing for position between Tordoff and Turkington allowed Plato to establish a lead at the front, a decisive move from the Team JCT600 with GardX driver dropped Turkington back into the clutches of a recovering Goff.
The two managed to tangle themselves up in one another exiting the hairpin at two-thirds distance, allowing Matt Neal and Mat Jackson to move themselves up the order.
Tordoff actually led on the timing screens at one stage crossing the line, but Plato held a defensive line and backed the BMW into Neal’s clutches, before the Honda dispatched the duo in the closing stages to take the lead.
Once in front, Neal set about establishing a clear lead and maintained his advantage to the chequered flag, which leaves him just three points adrift of the championship lead.
Rob Collard enjoyed a strong driver to come through from 17th on the grid to take fifth and keep himself in overall title contention.
Scottish duo Gordon Shedden and Aiden Moffat completed the top ten after struggling to make much progress from their starting grid positions. Defending champion Shedden will be hoping to take full advantage of a reverse grid result on the softer compound tyres in the final race.
Further back, Tom Ingram was in strife after his podium earlier in the day, bringing a very second-hand looking Toyota Avensis back to the pit lane in the closing laps after a number of incidents as his ballast-laden car tumbled down the order throughout.
Local hero and one-off returnee Dave Newsham was also brought back down to earth with a bump as he went across the grass, collecting earth and advertising hoarding in the front bumper of his Chevrolet Cruze and hampering his progress en route to 14th.
The race featured a brief early safety car period when Eurotech Racing’s Martin Depper went off into the gravel on the opening lap and had to be recovered, whilst the Subaru of Warren Scott was also in the wars.
Team HARD’s Michael Caine failed to take the start due to a historical back injury coming back for the 47-year-old.
The final contest gets underway at 17:12, with Mat Jackson drawn onto pole position.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL |  |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 25:42.020 | 52.524 | 8 |
| 2 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 1.249 | 52.610 | 5 |
| 3 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 27 | 2.340 | 52.597 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 27 | 2.830 | 52.322 | 3 |
| 5 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 2.836 | 52.177 | 17 |
| 6 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 27 | 3.640 | 52.594 | 12 | |
| 7 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 27 | 4.175 | 52.394 | 2 |
| 8 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 27 | 4.756 | 52.633 | 6 | |
| 9 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 5.554 | 52.652 | 9 |
| 10 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 27 | 6.706 | 52.391 | 13 | |
| 11 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 27 | 10.914 | 52.045 | 22 | |
| 12 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 27 | 13.192 | 52.936 | 10 | |
| 13 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 27 | 15.079 | 52.904 | 16 | |
| 14 | 71 | David NEWSHAM | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 27 | 18.559 | 52.889 | 7 | |
| 15 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 19.576 | 52.650 | 28 | |
| 16 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 27 | 25.630 | 52.833 | 18 |
| 17 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 27 | 32.399 | 52.996 | 25 | |
| 18 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 27 | 33.788 | 53.108 | 27 | |
| 19 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 27 | 34.434 | 53.192 | 31 | |
| 20 | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 27 | 35.408 | 53.511 | 21 | |
| 21 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 27 | 35.538 | 52.955 | 15 |
| 22 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 26 | 1 Lap | 52.721 | 20 | |
| 23 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 26 | 1 Lap | 53.857 | 26 | |
| R | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 25 | 2 Laps | 53.059 | 30 | |
| R | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 25 | 2 Laps | 52.522 | 4 | |
| R | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 24 | 3 Laps | 52.731 | 19 | |
| R | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 20 | 7 Laps | 53.051 | 29 |
| R | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 15 | 12 Laps | 53.239 | 23 | |
| R | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 9 | 18 Laps | 53.028 | 11 |
| R | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 14 | |
| NS | 88 | Michael CAINE | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | – | DNS | N/A | 24 |