Matt Neal admits he is taking a cautious approach to the three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at Thruxton tomorrow afternoon after the three-time champion clocked a fastest time of 1:16.247s to line up third fastest in his Honda Civic Type R.
In what was another fascinating thirty minute qualifying session around the notoriously difficult 2.4 mile Hampshire circuit, Tom Ingram emerged fastest to claim a second pole position of the season ahead of Aiden Moffat and Neal. Behind the Halfords Yuasa Racing driver line up the MG duo of Josh Cook and Ashley Sutton, with Adam Morgan, a winner at Thruxton in 2015, rounding out the top six in his Mercedes A-Class.
As at Donington Park, the works Honda outfit played an ‘under the radar’ game in both opening free practice sessions of the weekend, electing to work through various setup options and disguise their overall pace whilst others went for qualifying and race simulation runs.
The duo of Neal and defending champion Gordon Shedden then took to the circuit in earnest at 16:10 in their striking orange and black Type Rs, but whilst Neal secured an impressive third with a full quota of success ballast on board, Shedden fell just outside the top ten and will line up eleventh for race one tomorrow with 67kgs on board.
Commenting after the session, Neal was elated with the strong showing and believes that the car’s ideal setup really helped him through the faster, more committed sequence of corners around the back of the circuit.
“After making some changes between free practice and qualifying, I was hoping for the top six but thinking top ten was more realistic, so I’m over the moon to end up inside the top three,” explained Neal.
“The Honda Civic Type R was just hooked-up, and I was certainly pretty committed round the back of the lap.”
However, looking ahead to the first contest, which gets underway at 12:12 tomorrow afternoon, Neal believes that staying out of trouble has to be the priority for him as he looks to maintain his advantage at the top of the drivers standings.
The race might be a different affair for us – I’m not sure we will be quite so strong over a long run – but we’ll try to stay out of trouble and see what happens. Thruxton is notorious for tyre wear, so we’ll need to remain mindful of that.”