Having only finished building its new Honda Civics in the days leading up to the opening rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, Team Halfords was able to celebrate a fairytale start to life with its new S2000 machine as Matt Neal took a stunning win on the car s debut.
The two-time champion had spent hardly any time in the Team Dynamics built and developed machine prior to the weekend, but - as was the case with the all conquering Integra it replaces - the Civic proved to be quick out of the box, with Matt securing a double podium from the weekend. Team-mate Gordon Shedden went into the weekend with no running in the car, and unfortunately for Flash, the teething troubles expected from a new car - allied to some bad luck - meant he was forced out of two of the three races.
Race One:
Having qualified in a solid ninth place for his first race with the new car, Matt made a good start to climb up to sixth place on the opening lap, making the most of contact at the first corner between Fabrizio Giovanardi and Darren Turner. After an early Safety Car period, the double-champion soon moved into fifth past Tom Chilton s Vauxhall and then dived inside debutant Tom Onslow-Cole on lap 15 to go fourth, just before a second Safety Car period. From there, Matt challenged Mat Jackson in the closing stages before taking the flag in fourth place. However, Jackson was then excluded for a flag infringement, giving Matt a debut podium for the new car.
With next to no running in the car prior to the weekend, Flash produced a fine drive to move up from 14th on the grid after power steering failure in qualifying to bring his car home in the points, his Civic being embroiled in battles throughout the race before he took to the flag in a solid ninth place.
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