Honda duo Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal have hailed their Honda Civic Type R cars, after the pair bounced back into British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) title contention at Knockhill.
Shedden and Neal took a win apiece in Scotland to move firmly back into the championship hunt, with the Scot leading the way in second overall in the standings, after a haul of 40 points at his home circuit.
After a disastrous Snetterton meeting, in which Shedden scored just three points, the Scot is now just 11 points adrift of leader Jason Plato after scoring his third win of the season in the second race.
“It’s been good to bounce back after Snetterton,” said Shedden. “It’s definitely nice to score good points in all three races – I’ve won a race, Matt’s won a race so we are back in the hunt and we can go out fighting again in two weeks at Rockingham.
“It’s been brilliant to win here at my home circuit! I’ve never seen a crowd as enthusiastic as we’ve had this weekend so it’s just an amazing feeling to be part of it, especially with a good result.
“Every lap has been an adventure. I’ve given it everything and it’s worked pretty well – we’ve ended up with some good points and points make prizes at the end of the day.”
Shedden praised the performance of his Civic throughout the weekend, which also took him to points finishes in fifth and eighth in race one and three respectively.
“We’ve done a great job with the car this weekend – the Type R was brilliant and a pleasure to drive. I hoped the Honda would be competitive around Knockhill but you just never know where it’s going to stack up. We’ve worked hard at it, improving it significantly so hopefully we can continue the momentum at Rockingham.”
Neal took victory in the third race of the day to cap a strong weekend which saw him score just one point less than his team-mate. The result leaves him third overall in the driver’s standings, a further 11 points adrift.
“Considering we were looking forward to Snetterton and we thought we were going to be strong there and weak here, it just shows you how quickly the whole championship can turn around,” explained Neal. “To bounce back with two wins for the team just highlights the hard work everyone is putting in and how good the Honda Civic Type R really is.
“The car was fabulous around the track today. The Type R is a very agile piece of kit and that’s paid us back dividends this weekend – it’s performed very well.”
“Heading to Knockhill, I didn’t predict two race wins but we are now second and third in the championship which is great.
“I’m looking forward to Rockingham – we had a good test there last month but it’s definitely going to be ‘game-on’ for all of us.”