The Honda Yuasa Racing team left Thruxton having taken over at the top of the drivers’, teams’ and manufacturers’ standings as they secured all three victories in Hampshire.
Having secured 2nd and 3rd on the grid with the Pirtek car of Andrew Jordan on Pole Position, the Civic suited the fast Thruxton circuit. Their domination came despite not receiving a boost increase unlike their rivals.
“The car just comes into its own in the fast stuff,” commented Neal. “You’ve still got to hang on to it, but when you look at the other cars you think ‘thank goodness I’m in a Honda!'”
Matt Neal secured two out of the three victories as well as a second place to move him to the top of the drivers’ standings – his victory in race 1 was his 50th in the BTCC and he made that 51 and counting in race 2.
“Your first BTCC win is always special, but I’m really stoked about the two wins this weekend,” said Neal, whose results moved him into a 13 point lead at the top of the Championship.
He finished 2nd in the final race of the weekend, having followed home team-mate Gordon Shedden and just beating fellow Honda Andrew Jordan to complete a 1-2-3 finish, with the sister Pirtek Racing Honda of Jeff Smith spinning out from a potential 4th, denying Honda a 1-2-3-4 finish.
“To get two wins and a 1-2-3 for Honda in the third race – it doesn’t get much better than that,” added Neal.
Gordon Shedden had to perform another one of his demon drives from the back of the grid after his race one incident which saw him pit for repairs.
He finished 3rd in race 2 from 25th on the grid and then secured his second victory from 7th in the final race.
“I’d rather not have to do these start-from-the-back jobs!” joked Shedden.
“Twenty-fifth to third in race two was pretty decent, and then to win from seventh in race three was a good job.
“It’s the ups and downs of touring cars and I definitely want to defend my title. I had to dig deep today and I did.
“The car was really good; I could carry some real corner speed and the guys have done a great job. You can see we have a great handling car,” the Scotsman concluded.