Paul O’Neill happy with seventh, top five was possible

Paul O’Neill qualified in seventh in his second outing of the season with the Speedworks Motorsport team, and believes his Toyota Avensis could have been further up the grid if it wasn’t for the red flag stoppage.

The Widnes-driver struggled with electrical problems back in June at Croft when he first filled in for Tony Hughes, qualifying in 18th place and had to fight his way forward on race day, but this weekend there was no sign of them, setting the fourth fastest time in FP1 and seventh in FP2, and going on to set the seventh fastest time again in qualifying.

“I was happy with just the overall performance of the car and the team,” said O’Neill to TouringCarTimes. “I went out there (in qualifying) and thought ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ I don’t know what it’s like in the wet, I’ve never driven in the wet – it turned out alright, though we should have been fourth, but the red flag came out on the last corner for me so I was a bit screwed, but I’m still happy.”

“If you’d have had said to me would you have been happy with seventh before this weekend, I’d have had your arm.”

Paul O’Neill starts between the two Championship battling Honda Racing Team Civics of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal on the grid.
“I’ve got a bit of a point to prove this weekend, so I’m not going to be handing out any favours, I didn’t come here to miss the kerbs, I’m attacking and we’ll see what happens.”