Menu edges to title after Reid goes crashing out

Alain Menu secured his second British Touring Car Championship title by just two points in a dramatic finale here on Saturday. Tom Kristensen won both races for Honda, as Menu and his only title rivals - Ford team-mates Anthony Reid and Rickard Rydell - had problems.

Alain Menu secured his second British Touring Car Championship title by just two points in a dramatic finale here on Saturday. Tom Kristensen won both races for Honda, as Menu and his only title rivals - Ford team-mates Anthony Reid and Rickard Rydell - had problems.

A third place in the floodlit feature race clinched it for Menu, but only after Reid was punted out of the race. Kristensen overhauled Rydell to win the sprint race, while Reid crashed with Gabriele Tarquini. Menu had also crashed out, on the first lap. Kristensen dominated the feature race, in which Menu had to finish third or better with Reid at least two places behind. In the first lap Menu was third and Reid fifth, but a bold move on lap two took Menu past James Thompson into second.

Reid moved up to fourth when Thompson picked up a puncture, but the Scot's Ford was soon out, pushed off by Vincent Radermecker's Vauxhall in a move which cost the Belgian a £1,000 fine and a reprimand.

Menu offered no resistance to Jason Plato's Vauxhall when he took second place on the last lap, but if Reid had finished fourth in those circumstances the title would have been his.