Oxford's Jason Plato, Tom Onslow-Cole and Matt Neal shared the wins in three action-packed Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at Oulton Park in Cheshire.

The results saw Plato drop back to second in the race for the championship, with his chief rival Neal taking an eight-point lead.

In front of a huge crowd that included Olympic cycling and World gymnastics gold medallists Ed Clancy and Beth Tweddle, Onslow-Cole led race one all the way from pole position in his LPG powered Team Aon Ford Focus.

He stood up to intense pressure from Neal’s Honda Racing Team teammate Gordon Shedden and WSR BMW driver Robert Collard.

While lying fourth, Plato was knocked off the track and down to tenth so instead it was Neal, who finished eighth, who gained an early upper hand.

Plato then came through from tenth on the grid to win race two, his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze crossing the line with heavy front end damage after a robust move on early leader Onslow-Cole.

Neal also passed Onslow-Cole to take second, but it was not enough to stop Plato from now moving ahead in the standings.

But that was to change around again in race three. Home hero, Preston’s Tom Boardman, led for much of the race until Neal overtook him in the closing laps for his third win of the season. Plato could only finish sixth as Neal took over at the top.

Plato said: “A bit of a topsy-turvy day. Getting punted off in race one was a bit of a stinker.

“But the race two win showed we’ve made more progress with our car.

“And full credit to my team who’d done a lot of repairs to it after race one.

“The gap to Matt is nothing at this stage.

“We’re not even half-way through the season and it’s not just Matt who’s a rival, plenty of other teams and drivers are in the hunt and, as he says, Croft is going to be very hard fought.”