PERSHORE team Halfords Yuasa Racing's driver Gordon Shedden fought back to stay on top of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The Worcestershire outfit had mixed fortunes at Snetterton for rounds 16, 17 and 18 in the series' return after the summer break.

Reigning champion Shedden recovered from a tricky qualifying session to win the final race, ensuring he left Norfolk on a high as he heads for home turf at Knockhill on August 12 and 13.

Triple champion Neal had a podium finish in the opener but a potential fourth spot in the finale was taken from his grasp.

Neal retained his berth on the second row of the grid in qualifying and Shedden was 21st contending with the maximum 75kgs of success ballast on board his Honda Civic Type R.

The first race saw Neal take third on the fifth lap and hold his position until the chequered flag while Shedden had an action-packed 12 laps culminating in 13th spot and more points for the title cause.

The Scot, also a triple champion, had no ballast on board for race two and fought through to seventh as Neal secured a ninth-placed finish.

Neal started brightly in race three and was hunting down fourth position until contact from behind put pay to his race on lap four.

Shedden took advantage of a slice of luck after mechanical problems for Andrew Jordan up ahead meant the door was open for a third victory of the campaign.

He said: "With my poor qualifying position I knew the weekend would be about damage limitation and trying to gain as many points as possible so I fought hard in races one and two and got the luck of the reverse draw to put me second for the final race.

"I just kept plugging away and towards the end the tyres were going off but as soon as Jordan pulled over it was head down and elbows out to finish on top of the podium which I never expected at the beginning of the day.

"I'm ecstatic. I'm back in the lead of the championship and heading to my home circuit at Knockhill next.

"It's always mega there as the crowd are right behind me and give me that extra 10th of a second."

Neal said: "After being reinstated in qualifying I thought it would be a tough day from there onwards so I was over the moon to get another podium finish.

"In the second race the car felt strong but I got shuffled down the order and then struggled to regain places.

"In the third race I was climbing up the order and again the car felt good but I was tagged from behind and that was race over for me which was really frustrating. But onwards and upwards to Scotland now in two weeks."

STANDINGS

Drivers: 1 Shedden 221 points, 2 Colin Turkington 219, 3 Rob Collard 217, 4 Ashley Sutton 210, 5 Tom Ingram 164, 6 Neal 157.

Manufacturers: 1 BMW 506, 2 Honda 452, 3 Subaru 409, 4 Vauxhall 346, 5 MG 214.

Teams: 1 Team BMW 424, 2 Halfords Yuasa Racing 369, 3 Adrian Flux Subaru Racing 265, 4 Speedworks Motorsport 162, 5 Eurotech Racing 156, 6 BMW Pirtek Racing 146.