Matt Neal draws level with Andy Rouse to take his 60th BTCC Win at Thruxton.

• Matt Neal claims 60th BTCC victory at Thruxton
• Gordon Shedden is weekend’s highest scorer
• Halfords Yuasa Racing sets pace in Hampshire

Halfords Yuasa Racing enjoyed a successful weekend on ‘home’ soil as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship sped into ultra-fast Thruxton, with Gordon Shedden outscoring all of his rivals on the same weekend that Matt Neal reached a major milestone.

In front of a host of Honda employees – with the brand’s UK manufacturing headquarters just up the road in Swindon – Neal and Shedden locked out the top two spots on the starting grid in qualifying, as the former snared his 16thBTCC pole position and the latter belied maximum ballast to join him at the sharp end of the field. 

Neal converted that into his 60th career triumph in race one – in so doing drawing level with tin-top legend Andy Rouse in equal-second place on the all-time BTCC winners’ list. Shedden followed his Halfords Yuasa Racing team-mate home for the runner-up laurels, as Honda cars secured all three spots on the podium.

A similar result looked to be on the cards in race two as Neal led away again, until a power steering issue sent him darting for the pits at the end of lap two. Upon rejoining the fray, the three-time BTCC Champion posted what was comfortably the fastest lap to underline what might have been.

An early ‘moment’ on cold tyres saw Shedden shuffled back to fourth, but the Scot immediately fought back and was sizing up Rob Collard for the lead when the red flags flew once more – this time for good – on lap seven.

In the day’s finale, from fifth on the reversed grid, Shedden had to dig deep to unseat Rob Austin’s lighter Toyota from fourth position and complete his weekend with another very strong finish, while Neal took no prisoners as he scythed his way through from 29th to tenth at the chequered flag – although he was subsequently demoted to 11th after being adjudged to have gained an unfair advantage in overtaking a rival.

Shedden’s excellent haul saw him vault from fourth up to second in the Drivers’ standings – just 17 points adrift of the lead – with Neal similarly in contention in seventh. Honda has gained ground in the Manufacturers’ classification, as Halfords Yuasa Racing maintains second spot in the Teams’ Table.

Gordon Shedden:

“To qualify on the front row with 75kg in the car definitely exceeded my expectations; every lap was an adventure as I tried to keep my foot in for as long as possible through the faster corners around the back of the circuit – there wasn’t much left in the tank! I got a slightly better start than Matt in race one, but he was a lot lighter than me so I didn’t force the issue too much. It was fantastic for him to take his 60th BTCC win, and a tremendous effort from the boys to get a one-two. 

It was disappointing that we didn’t have another five or six laps in race two because we were clearly quicker than Rob, and then race three was another good finish. You always want more of course, but we left with three very solid results and a strong points haul – and that gives us a lot of confidence going to Oulton Park.”

Matt Neal:

“After the disappointment of Donington, we needed to bounce back and I’m really going to cherish this 60th win. The Civic Type R has always been amazing at Thruxton – we work hard on the aero, and this circuit is primarily high-speed corners. 

‘Flash’ certainly made me work for pole, and to come away with a Halfords Yuasa Racing one-two and a Honda podium lockout on home soil in the first race was a dream – a fabulous result to reward all the guys and girls from the factory who came down to support us. 

I felt a bit wounded after race two, because that was another win in the bag – ‘Flash’ and I could really have made hay out there – but the car was magnificent in race three. The team said to me, ‘why don’t you drop back and see if you can go for fastest lap’, but I thought ‘stuff that’ and had a lot of fun. I just wanted to keep going at the end...”

Drivers’ Standings

1. Tom Ingram 131 points

2. Gordon Shedden 114 points

3. Colin Turkington 112 points

4. Rob Collard 103 points

5. Adam Morgan 96 points

6. Jack Goff 89 points

7. Matt Neal 73 points

Manufacturers’ Standings

1. BMW 259 points

2. Honda 225 points

3. Vauxhall 188 points

4. Subaru 159 points

5. MG 127 points

Teams’ Standings

1. Team BMW 209 points

2. Halfords Yuasa Racing 181 points

3. Speedworks Motorsport 127 points

4. Eurotech Racing 110 points

5. Ciceley Motorsport 96 points

6. Adrian Flux Subaru Racing 65 points

the Halfords Yuasa Honda Civic's prove that Oulton Park can be a front drive success, with some great results.

• Second success of season keeps Matt Neal firmly in title fight
• Honda Civic Type R fastest front wheel-drive car at Oulton Park
• Gordon Shedden denied podium finish by late-race puncture

Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Matt Neal tallied his second success of the 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship campaign at Oulton Park this weekend (4/5 June), as the Honda Civic Type R proved its prowess as the fastest front wheel-drive car in the field.

  

Oulton Park is renowned as a circuit that favours rear wheel-drive machinery, and with both drivers carrying significant success ballast, Gordon Shedden qualified fifth – less than eight hundredths-of-a-second shy of the top spot – with Neal not far behind in eighth, placing the pairing ahead of the majority of their chief title rivals.

 

Shedden ran as high as third in the opener, but with his soft-compound tyres fading in the closing stages, he found himself fighting a rearguard battle. Following a valiant defence under persistent pressure, the defending champion ultimately had to concede the position to old foe Jason Plato, taking the chequered flag fourth with Neal ninth.

 

The Scot repeated the result with a solid effort in race two, as Neal emerged from a titanic multi-car scrap in seventh. That saw both Civic Type Rs begin the reversed-grid finale from the sharp end of the order, with Neal leading from lights-out and Shedden working his way swiftly up to second.

 

Thereafter, the duo ran in close formation as they consistently pulled away from the chasing pack, but a late puncture for Shedden dashed a comfortable one-two finish. 

Neal’s dominant victory saw him leave Oulton just one point off the championship lead, with Halfords Yuasa Racing in the same position in the Teams’ standings. Honda similarly sits second in the Manufacturers’ Classification, with Shedden improving a spot to fourth in the Drivers’ table.

 

Matt Neal:

“It seems to be becoming a bit of a trend at the moment that we run under the radar in races one and two with the weight on-board and then win race three! 

The ballast certainly hurt us in qualifying and race one, and race two got pretty fraught at times with some really robust driving – we had to battle for every inch of track space. It was nice to have a more straightforward race three, although it was obviously a shame about Flash’s puncture because it would have been great to take a one-two finish for Halfords Yuasa Racing. 

After that, I backed off a bit because we had enough of a cushion behind. I was dead chuffed to get the win – I really don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that feeling!”

 

Gordon Shedden:

“I think it’s fair to say the Civic Type R was the fastest front wheel-drive car at Oulton and given the advantage that the rear wheel-drive cars enjoyed, we definitely extracted the most that we could from races one and two. Race three was looking even better and then we got the puncture so close to the end, which was massively disappointing. 

It came completely out of the blue; there was no tyre drop-off and the car felt fine. In hindsight, given the advantage we had, perhaps we could have backed off a bit earlier but neither of us was taking any unnecessary risks – it was just pure bad luck. Still, we proved once again that we have the pace so we’ll put it behind us and move onto the next one.”