Andy Neate delighted by career-best qualifying

One of the happiest drivers on Saturday at Oulton Park was Team AON’s Andy Neate, who celebrated his best ever BTCC qualifying performance. The Global Ford Focus driver begins Sunday’s opening race third on the grid, with only the pace setting Honda Civics of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal ahead.

Unsurprisingly the 36-year-old was delighted with the way the qualifying session had gone.

“I’m really pleased to be where I am,” Neate told TouringCarTimes.

“It’s my best qualifying in British Touring Cars. It’s my second year in the championship and to be fair, this year has been a bit of a struggle.”

Before qualifying began it looked like the Chevrolet Cruzes of Jason Plato, Paul O’Neill and Alex MacDowall would be the nearest rivals to the Hondas, but in the end the challenge came from an unexpected source in Neate.

“I was very confident that I could get into the top six in qualifying. It’s a shame because we were quick enough to be in P2 and were up on our lap, but we caught up with Chris James going into Druids and he managed to park it on the apex there.”

“Although I was flashing my lights all the way up Clay Hill and under the Yokohama Bridge, for some reason he didn’t see me. I was up on my lap, which would have put me into P2, but nevermind…”

With Neate just 0.004 ahead of Plato when the session came to an abrupt end, was he glad to see the red flags that may have protected his third place from a last ditch Chevrolet assault?

“I don’t know, because I don’t think the session was going any quicker towards the end. The sun had come out and the tyre temperature was going up a bit, and while you need a bit of heat you don’t want the track to be too hot, so I was quietly confident that that was as fast as the track was going to go.”

Neate denies that the sudden emergence of pace in qualifying was deliberate, and instead points to a successful pre-Oulton Park test in Wales, as well as hard work in the day’s opening two practice sessions.

“We were P10 in FP1 and P12 in FP2, not that we were sandbagging but we were playing with different things on the car. We had a test at Pembrey and tried all sorts of new things on the car, because let’s not forget, this is a new car. We’ve moved the setup in a different direction to our traditional setup.”

Does his best touring car qualifying performance also give him confidence that he is moving in the right direction, after what he admits has been a difficult start to 2011.

“It does. Don’t get me wrong you never doubt your own ability, but sometimes you do go home after a race weekend when nothings really gone your way and think ‘What’s the point?’ or ‘What do I have to do?'”

“But we’re knocking on the door. At Thruxton we had got really good pace, but just bad luck. We’re the only one who got penalised for kerb hopping, shall we say, at the chicane, which would have put me way up into P6 or P7, so I got penalised.”

“So I just thought let’s come to this weekend with a smile on my face, try to do a good qualifying and see where it goes from there.”

Where he goes is into the opening race of the Oulton Park weekend with his best ever shot at a podium result, so what does he want from Sunday’s three races?

“I came here this weekend trying to bag three points finishes. I’m in a good position to maybe get on the podium, but I don’t want to get carried away as I’ve got some great drivers around me. The important thing is I’m on the right place in the grid and away from all the mischief in the midfield.”

“If we can get a podium that’d be fantastic and I’d be over the moon and you’ll see me bouncing up and down the pitlane all afternoon. But if I can get some points finishes I’ll be happy.”