Rob Collard's hopes of a home win at Thruxton on Monday lasted less than half a minute.

Hampshire's big challenger for Indepedents Cup honours in the Green Flag British Touring Car Championship was forced into the barriers in the fast sweep out of Allards, the first corner of the circuit.

Collard claimed that his biggest rival for Indepedents Cup honours, Gavin Pyper, who races for the Thruxton-based GA Motorsport Team, was the man who tipped him off track.

But it later transpired that one of the Halford Peugeots may have got the first touch which sent Collard hurtling into the tyre wall at 100mph, inflicting extensive damage to his ex-works Vauxhall Astra Coupe.

The man who runs a road haulage/demolition business in Eversley was dismayed and downcast as he counted the cost of his biggest demolition job of all.

"We'll have to spend around £25,000 to get the car ready for the next round at Silverstone," groaned Collard, who is renowned for getting results despite racing on a shoestring.

"We've got a couple of new sponsors," he added, "but we haven't got the money to cover this. We'll have to do a lot of the repair work ourselves and try and get some more sponsorship to keep us racing."

The front and back of the car were both badly bent but the most expensive repair work will be to the engine - which was new in for Thruxton!

The accident also took out the works MGs of Antony Reid and Warren Hughes but Pyper, a Scot based at Haslemere, was unfazed and went on to take a magnificent sixth place overall, beating a gaggle of works machinery and just losing out to Honda's Alan Morrison for fifth place,

It gave him a decisive win in the Independents Cup from the Peugeots of Dan Eaves and Carl Breeze, with James Kaye fourth.

At the front of the field, Matt Neal edged his Honda Civic ahead of the Vauxhall Astra Coupe of Frenchman Yvan Muller, but after the pit stops the positions were reversed and Muller went on to win narrowly from Neal with Vauxhall's Paul O'Neill third.

Salisbury's Alan Blencowe took third in the Production Class behind Tom Boardman and his Barwell Honda Civic teammate Luke Hines.

Collard, having seen Pyper sweep past him in the points standings for the Independents Cup, braced himself for the Scot extending that lead in the second of the touring car races.

But, when Pyper's Astra Coupe refused to start on the line, they were both reduced to reluctant spectators as another driver with strong Hampshire links, Alton based Yorkshireman James Kaye, took his Synchro Honda Civic to its second Indepedents Cup win of the season after passing both Peugeots, which later retired anyway.

Again Neal made the strongest start and was controlling the race ahead of Muller until a slow puncture forced a spin at the very quick Church corner.

Muller took control and went on to win from the works Honda of Morrison with O'Neill again taking third place.

Other Thruxton winners were James Rossiter (Formula Renault), Barry Horne (Porsche Cup), Tom Kimber-Smith (Formula Ford) and Danny Buxton (Clio Cup).