THE Green Flag British Touring Car Championship rewarded bumper bank holiday crowds at Hampshire's Thruxton circuit with thrilling racing.

More than 17,000 witnessed a plethora of thrills and spills as the touring car drivers went head-to-head for overall honours, first in a 15-lap sprint race and then in a 25-lap feature clash on Britain's fastest track.

At the end of two dramatic, hectic and supremely competitive races, three Vauxhall drivers left the circuit tied on points at the head of the championship table.

Triple 888 Vauxhall Motorsport team mates James Thompson and Yvan Muller, who took a win each in their Astra Coupes, are now sensationally level with Matt Neal who drives for the sister Vauxhall team, Egg Sport.

The nail-biting sprint saw Frenchman Muller and Thompson thrill the crowds with a race-long battle for the lead - a battle eventually won by Thompson who became the first driver to score a brace of wins so far this season after Muller was sidelined by broken suspension and a nudge with the barriers.

Thompson said: "It was a fantastic race - I thoroughly enjoyed it! I'm disappointed for Yvan as we were having a good tussle and looked set to have a good dice to the finish."

Pole-sitter Muller looked to have the race under control from the outset, although Thompson initially had to defend hard from the charging MG ZS of Anthony Reid and Egg Sport's Matt Neal.

The spectators at the Hampshire circuit witnessed what has to be the closest-fought race in the production category to date.

Poleman James Kaye claimed his second win this year for Synchro Motorsport followed by Edenbridge Racing's Tom Boardman in second position (only three-tenths of a second behind) and Beacon Motorsport's Spencer Marsh in third.

The longer feature race, with its mandatory pit stop for the touring class, generated a terrific battle for positions throughout the field.

After his bad luck in the sprint and at the previous feature race, poleman Muller must have had everything crossed over the final few laps as he went for his second win of the year. It paid off - Muller heading Vauxhall Motorsport teammate Thompson by just half a second from Egg Sport's Matt Neal in third.

Thompson, who was carrying 66kg more ballast than Muller due to his sprint race win and his teammate's earlier retirement, was delighted with second place.

As he said: "I'm really happy with today. I didn't want to risk anything at the end as we just weren't sure about tyre wear with the additional weight I was carrying."

A titanic battle for third place was initially played out between Neal, Anthony Reid for MG Sport and Racing and the impressive Andy Priaulx for Honda Racing.

However a frightening incident on lap 21 along the start-finish line, which saw Neal sandwiched between Reid and a lapped Colin Turkington for Team Atomic Kitten, resulted in Reid and Turkington firing off the circuit and into retirement.

The non-stop action continued in the production category with Synchro Motorsport's James Kaye securing a superb second win of the day and a 13-point lead in the BTC Production Drivers' Championship, over three seconds ahead of Gary Ayles Motorsport's Alan Blencowe from Salisbury. Team B&Q Jet York City celebrated its second visit to the podium this year as Jim Edwards Jnr brought his Honda Accord home in third place. Results:

BTCC Sprint race: 1, James Thompson (Vauxhall); 2, Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra); 3, Anthony Reid (MG ZS); 4, Andy Priaulx (Honda Civic Type-R); 5, Tim Harvey (Peugeot 406 Coupe); 6, Dan Eaves (Peugeot 406 Coupe).

BTCC Feature race: 1, Yvan Muller (Vauxhall Astra); 2, James Thompson (Vauxhall Astra); 3, Matt Neal (Vauxhall Astra); 4, Tim Harvey (Peugeot 406 Coupe); 5, Andy Priaulx (Honda Civic Type-R; 6, Dan Eaves (Peugeot 406 Coupe).