YORK'S James Thompson has been handed a major boost is his bid for British Touring Car Championship honours.

One his main rivals, Jason Plato, has been deducted points for an incident at Snetterton last week.

The 33-year-old from Oxford arrived at Croft, near Darlington, for this weekend's action to learn that he had been demoted from second to third in round 16 for punting Phil Bennett off during a night race at the Norfolk circuit.

It meant a four-point swing in the title standings, with two points docked from Plato's tally and added to the total of his Vauxhall team-mate Yvan Muller, who now has 235 points overall to Plato's 232. Thompson is in third place with 211 points. All three are Vauxhall drivers.

With the championship race looking like it could go all the way to the final event of the season at Brands Hatch in October, and Thompson also not out of the equation, the penalty could prove extremely costly.

Honours were split relatively evenly at Croft, with Plato and Muller each bagging a victory and a second place but the Frenchman opened up a three-point gap because he notched up more bonuses.

Thompson finished a disappointing fifth in the Sprint race and third

in the Feature race.

He lost his windscreen wipers in the Feature Race which may have cost him a better position on the podium.

Plato, 33, from Oxford, was still hurting from the points loss which he insisted had been the result of "nothing sinister" on his part.

"It's disappointing to lose points," said Plato. "There was nothing sinister in what I did. You have to remember it was wet and dark that night at Snetterton.

"Phil put a good move on me to get past but I genuinely thought it would lead to him going off the track.

"That's why I held my line, and I've no remorse about that, but I ended up running into the back of him and pushing him down the road, which I am sorry about. I know it looked bad on television and I hold my hands up for that.

"But to come back a week later and find I've been deducted points for something that was a genuine mistake is like being kicked where it hurts."

Updated: 13:23 Monday, August 13, 2001