By Bradley Halcrow

The sun was shining and the engines were roaring at the weekend, as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship made its annual trip to Thruxton.

Those who averted their attention from the Royal Wedding this weekend, saw the Hampshire circuit play host to the BTCC as well the Renault UK Clio Cup, the Ginetta Junior Championship, the Ginetta GT5 Challenge and the F4 British Championship.

The UK’s fastest circuit saw its lap record broken on Saturday as Honda Yuasa Racing’s Matt Neal qualified on pole. He turned pole position into a race win in the first race of the day, with Team BMW’s Colin Turkington sandwiched between the Hondas, as Neal’s teammate Dan Cammish rounded out the podium.

As per the rules, Neal’s car was to have the most weight ballast added for race 2, starting in pole position once more. Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook stormed through the field in a light car to win the race. He climbed from ninth to first, with Turkington once again in toe. Neal made the best of a bad situation with his added weight to finish third.

In a Q&A session with Honda’s guests, Matt Neal said: "I had a great qualifying and first race without any weight in the car, but with 75kg of added weight it was always going to be a hard task to repeat the victory.”

Race 3’s reverse grid saw Ciceley Motrsport’s Adam Morgan lead from lights to flag, and a storming drive from Jack Goff saw him finish 2nd. The other Power Maxed Racing car of Senna Proctor rounded out the top 3.

Tom Ingram started the day leading the championship standings in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota, but a difficult race 1 saw him retire, whilst running maximum weight ballast. A stunning race 2 for Ingram saw him make up 20 places to finish 12th, and then climbed up the order again to pip Matt Neal across the line for 7th in race 3.

Last year's independents winner is now 11 points adrift of first place in the standings Adam Morgan, who sits one point ahead of Josh Cook. From the early races Ingram looks the favourite to take the crown, and with a slightly lighter car next time out at Oulton Park he could have more a more successful weekend.

It was a good weekend for the "old boys" on the grid, with Matt Neal picking up a race win and another podium, and solid haul of three points finishes. Colin Turkington scored the most points of anyone this weekend, with two second places and a fifth. It wasn't all good for the experienced drivers, as Jason Plato once again struggled with Subaru's Swindon engine, and is yet to score a point this season.

Hampshire’s own Rob Collard had a difficult day, qualifying only 13th despite not having any weight ballast on board. In the first race he only managed 11th, and fell back to 14th in race 2. Race 3 saw him in a massive scrap with the midfield runners, which he eventually broke away from to finish 10th. He now sits 16th in the standings overall.

The BTCC heads north next time out, as it returns to Oulton Park on June 9/10.