Team Halfords enjoyed further success in the North East of England in the latest rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with a first pole position and first double podium finish of the season.
Gordon Shedden, (Flash) produced an impressive time during qualifying to edge out Colin Turkington and Darren Turner for the honour of the first pole for the Team Dynamics-built and developed Honda Civic.
The opening race saw Flash and his teammate, defending champion, Matt Neal together on the podium for the first time this season - with Matt placed third and Flash second.
Race One:
Having qualified on pole position, Flash lost out at the start, to the fast starting BMW of Colin Turkington and teammate Matt who made a fine start from the second row of the grid to move into second on the run to the opening corner. The pair ran together behind the BMW until the seventh lap, when Matt came up to lap Turkington’s teammate Tom Onslow-Cole at the final Hairpin. As Matt went inside the BTCC rookie, contact saw the BMW spin across the front of Matt’s Honda which delayed the defending champion enough to allow Flash to sneak through into second place. Matt then tucked into third where he remained to the finish for a double podium.
Race Two:
Drama at the start of race two saw Matt pushed off the grid with a mechanical problem that looked set to force him to retire, which would have meant a start from the back of the grid for the final race of the day. However, lightening work from the Team Halfords crew meant he joined the race a lap down from the rest of the field. The current champion produced his second quickest lap en route to 13th place, taking advantage of problems for those ahead to give himself a better starting slot for the third race. Flash held second at the start and moved ahead on lap four when Turkington ran wide at Tower. However, an unfortunate steering issue on his Civic Type R saw the Scot gradually drop back and slip down the order before he elected to retire with the car becoming increasingly difficult to drive.
Race Three:
Starting from 13th on the grid after the second race, Matt produced a solid drive to make his way up the order to finish in sixth place and for a solid points finish to move him up to 3rd in the overall championship. With his race two retirement meaning he started back in 17th, Flash was arguably the star of the race as he picked off car after car to finish in fourth, just missing out on a podium after reeling in a gap of over four seconds to Mat Jackson’s BMW in the closing stages.
Quotes:
Matt Neal: “The weekend promised loads but maybe didn’t deliver to our expectations. The first race was mega with both of us on the podium for the first time this season and I was hopeful of a really strong result in race two, but I had a problem on the grid and Flash had one while leading the race. From the back in race three it was always going to be tough to move forward as it’s easy to drive a wide car round here, but we both scored further points. However, the car felt great all weekend and I feel we’ve made big steps forward, we are pushing hard to get more from the chassis and Neil Brown is pushing with the engine. We never stop working and hopefully will go well at Oulton Park. “
Gordon Shedden: “To get the first pole for the Honda Civic was great and I was really pleased with it. Second in the first race was a good result for us and then a steering problem in the second race compromised me for the rest of the weekend. Things looked bleak for me then, so to come through from 17th on the grid to finish fourth was good, one more lap and I’d have probably done Mat Jackson and had two podiums. We know that we have pace in the car now and are a lot more competitive than we were at the start of the year in genuine terms of pace so bring on Oulton Park - I’m really looking forward to it! ”
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