Honda weary of the weather at Croft

The Honda Racing Team believe the Yorkshire circuit will suit the nimble Civic this weekend, but could do without rain as an equalising factor as it was at Oulton Park.

“It has been a great track for us in the past and I think that we will be strong there again,” said championship leader Matt Neal.

“It’s a track that really rewards a car that has a strong chassis and that is something we have got with the Civic. It’s very strong in the fast sweeping corners and it’s also a good car when you have to be aggressive across the kerbing. I am going there confident of a strong weekend.”

“(But) we saw at the last round at Oulton Park that difficult conditions can change everything,” said Neal.

“I have looked at the forecast for the weekend and it looks unpredictable. I just hope we can have three dry races to get the most out of the car.”

Honda are now first and second in the drivers’ standings after a good weekend for the team at Oulton Park, despite the error in race two which robbed the team of a 1-2 finish and handed a win to arch-rival Jason Plato in the Chevrolet.

Gordon Shedden sits two points behind team-mate Neal going to Croft in the standings, but another four drivers are within 13 points of the Scottish driver, including Motorbase’s Mat Jackson, two-times champion Jason Plato and the two fast Vectra drivers James Nash and Andrew Jordan.

“I agree that our car is going to be strong around Croft and I took two wins there last season,” said Shedden.

“I think we can perform strongly because it is such a technical track and it has two distinct characters. ”

“It has some really fast corners around the back of the circuit which mean you need a great handling car but it also has the slow and technical stuff at the end of the lap so we need to make sure that the set-up is perfect. Getting all of those elements right is what makes it such a buzz when you hook it all up.”