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Team Halfords continued its good record at Thruxton as Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden secured a podium finish each in the latest rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
After a tough weekend last time out at Rockingham, both drivers were able to bring the all new Team Dynamics built and developed Honda Civic home to a second place finish as the team continued to make progress with its first Super 2000 machine.
Race One:
From eighth on the grid, Matt lost a place at the start but gradually started to make his way up the order as the Civic worked well on its tyres on the most abrasive circuit on the calendar. Matt climbed up to sixth place entering the final lap and then inherited fifth when Mike Jordan - racing Matt’s old Honda Integra - suffered a puncture and dropped down the order.
For Gordon, the opening race saw a continuation of the bad luck that dogged him at both Brands Hatch and Rockingham, when contact with the BMW of Mat Jackson at the complex on lap one led to the Scot retiring from the race with accident damage.
Race Two:
Starting fifth thanks to his result in race one, Matt made a good start to end the opening lap in third place. After a Safety Car period, Matt piled the pressure on second placed Tom Chilton and slid past on the high-speed run through Village three laps from the finish to take the place. However, there was no chance to make a move on leader Fabrizio Giovanardi with yellow flags showing at the final chicane.
Gordon was forced to start from the back of the grid due to his race one retirement but came through the pack in stunning style to finish in eighth place, a result that put him on the second row of the grid for the final race due to the reverse grid regulations.
Race Three:
Matt started the final race from ninth place with success ballast on board, but made up a few places in the early stages as the field jostled for position. As the race settled down, he held a solid seventh place, but after following Darren Turner past the Alfa Romeo of Dave Pinkney, Matt set about pressurising the SEAT man. He finally found a way past to take fifth on the final lap, just missing out on stealing fourth from Giovanardi on the run to the line.
Gordon survived a ‘heart in mouth’ moment early in the race that saw up to five cars running side-by-side around Thruxton’s sweeping curves to lie in third place by the end of lap two. Having passed Pinkney’s Alfa Romeo, he did his best to take a first win of the year, but eventually settled for a well earned second place behind Jason Plato.
