GoMobileUK.com with Tech-Speed racer Paul O’Neill enjoyed yet another strong weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch as the 31 year-old bagged yet more points for the team.
Having secured his third podium of the season last time out at Rockingham, O’Neill and the team went to Brands looking to challenge for podiums once again.
Having qualified eighth, O’Neill duly went on to secure a sixth-placed finish in the opening race. The Widnes racer demonstrated that he had the pace to challenge the championship leaders and half way through the race he pressured Gordon Shedden into a mistake to take sixth. A puncture for the Honda man moved O’Neill up to fifth, but towards the end of the race he was unable to keep Tom Onslow-Cole at bay and he dropped back a position.
Things went even better in race two when O’Neill secured a fourth placed finish after getting a strong start. Things looked to be going well again in the third race after yet another strong start moved the Chevrolet driver into sixth. However O’Neill was forced to retire from fifth on lap 10 when the driveshaft on his Cruze failed.
With O’Neill’s main championship rival Rob Collard only scoring a handful of points at the weekend it moves him closer to taking 8th in the Championship off the WSR driver, with the gap between the two currently 14 points.
“It was a good weekend for us, but we were only six laps from it being a fantastic weekend,said O’Neill. “The car had been a bit nervous in qualifying but we sorted that for race day and it was really strong. If we’d been a few places higher on the grid then we could well have come away from Brands Hatch with a couple of podium finishes and if it hadn’t been for the problem in race three, I think we’d definitely have had a podium finish there.
“The team has given its all this weekend and the boys can be proud of the performance they’ve put in. It’s a shame that it ended with a DNF, but these things happen in racing. We’ve shown strong pace again and have been on the cusp of the top three throughout race day.”
John George, in the sister purple Cruze, took home another three race finishes. In the first race he finished a commendable 14th overall, a strong result given the large 29-car grid present at Brands. He followed this up by taking a 20th and 21st respectively.
George admitted that he was buoyed by the strong results, even though he came away with no points in either championship.
“I’ve had a tough run recently but this weekend was much better,” said the Cornish racer. “I’ve been much more competitive and the results have been improved as a result. The car was brilliant in races one and two and to come from 23rd to 14th in the first race was something I really enjoyed. Race two was a good run and I felt comfortable in the car and its just a shame about race three but I had no option but to take avoiding action when MacDowall locked up ahead of me.
“This weekend has boosted my confidence 100 per cent. I’ve battled against some good drivers and have set some decent lap times all weekend and it would seem that they have now got the equivalency between the turbo and normally-aspirated cars about right.”