Honda Yuasa Racing continued their strong start to the 2012 British Touring Car Championship as Gordon Shedden bounced back from his nightmare weekend at Brands Hatch with two victories and a second place finish at Donington Park.
For Shedden, his Donington Park results gave him his career best weekend to date and helped move him up to fifth in the Championship, fifteen points off the Championship lead.
“I think at the end of first practice I’d done more laps than I had during the whole weekend at Brands!” he said. “I was trying everything just to get some points – it was critical for me after Brands – and there were some shenanigans with other drivers in race three.”
Scotsman Shedden also admitted that it was crucial to his Championship hopes that he had a strong weekend at Donington – he has now won six times around the East Midlands circuit.
“We’re six races in and you can see how quickly the tide can change – just look at what happened to Matt in race three – but it was crucial for me to have such a good weekend,” he added. “The car was good and consistent all weekend but the game is moving on and there’s a whole lot happening with other teams.”
Team-mate and reigning Champion Matt Neal followed Shedden home in the opening two races to leave his home circuit just four points off the lead of the Championship.
“Its early days, but it’s always nice to have big points in the bag,” he added. “Every time we go out we understand the NGTC Civic more.”
Having taken the flag third in the first race of the weekend, Neal improved one position in race two as Honda secured their first one, two finish of the season.
His weekend ended in the gravel however after an incident which was triggered by the BMW of Rob Collard saw Neal spun into the McLeans gravel trap.
“In race three the car was feeling great,” confirmed Neal. “It was just a catalogue of events and I ended up the worst off, but that’s life.”
“It was a really positive weekend for the team – three podiums for Gordon and two for me. We’ve overhauled MG in the manufacturers’ and teams’ table.”
Next up for Neal, Shedden and the Honda Yuasa Racing Team is a trip to the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire over the 28/29 April. Neal and Shedden both won a race there last year, both as part of a 1, 2 finish in races one and two.