Honda hoping for the triple on race day

After finding additional pace before qualifying and Matt Neal claiming a lap record smashing pole lap, Honda are hoping to be able to fight for three victories on Sunday.

With Matt Neal on pole, and Gordon Shedden starting last, with his car due to be repaired overnight, Honda Racing Team Principal Steve Neal believes they’re in a strong position for tomorrow’s race.

“I’ll bet you he’s (Shedden) through into the reverse grid for race three,” said Neal.

Neal had previous indicated that the car was a write-off, but the team was able to turn it around, also unofficially redrafting Matt Neal’s former chief mechanic Richard Townsend from Motorbase.

“He looks at it and says, ‘no we’ll get that out’, he’s amazing, one of those real genuine guys.”

The Honda of Matt Neal was half a second quicker in qualifying than in the free practice sessions, with Matt also completing a simulated race distance in FP2 highlighting the strong pace of the NGTC-powered Honda Civic.

“We found a little bit between practice and qualifying. The main thing to try and work on is the driveability of the thing, that’s what we’ve been working on, and we’re pretty convinced that the others haven’t,” said Neal.

Steve Neal was bemused by the lack of pace shown by the Chevrolet team in qualifying, with Jason Plato almost four-tenths down on Matt Neal’s pole time in third, and MacDowall two places further back.

“That doesn’t make sense, they’re doing the same times as they did last year with 45 kilos less in the car and with what is allegedly a superior car,” referring to the upgrade to the 2010 WTCC car for the RML team.

On Shedden’s accident, although the team is still only speculating as to the cause at this point, it’s now believed it could possibly have been a cut tyre which resulted in the heavy crash in the first free practice session.