Honda Racing Team looking to move on at Knockhill

The Honda Racing Team duo of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal will be aiming to return to the podium after a torrid weekend at Snetterton saw their lead in the manufacturers’ standings cut to just five points.

Shedden struggled with pace and mechanical issues throughout the first half of the Snetterton weekend, while both drivers found themselves caught up in some hard racing in the midfield throughout the race day, with both sustaining heavy damage and finding themselves back in the garage before the chequered flag.

Despite their struggles at Snetterton, Shedden and Neal are confident they can turn things around with reduced success ballast after slipping to third and sixth in the drivers’ standings respectively.

Shedden will also be hoping the passionate home crowd will give him the boost he needs to claw back the points lost to the Team BMR duo of Jason Plato and Colin Turkington at Snetterton.

“I think Snetterton was the worst accumulative score Matt and I have ever had at a race weekend,” said Shedden. “But that round is done and dusted, there’s nothing that we can do about it other than come out fighting at Knockhill – I always look forward to racing north of the border. It’s awesome to race at my home circuit, especially in front of a home crowd – the Scottish love their motor sport and it’s great to be part of that.

“In terms of the circuit, Knockhill is everything that the BTCC is about – a ‘real roller-coaster’. It’s aggressive and always produces spectacular racing. Qualifying is going to be really tight but every cloud has a silver lining and we head into the weekend with slightly less success ballast – we are definitely going to use that to our advantage.”

Neal echoed Shedden’s sentiments, believing that their lack of success ballast will help them get up the front in what is expected to be a rear-wheel-drive dominated weekend.

“We have a great car under us and going into the weekend with significantly less success ballast, we should put in a good performance,” commented Neal. “Knockhill is very much a rear-wheel-drive circuit and given the strength of the Type R, I’m hopeful that we will be up there with the rest of the real-wheel-drive cars.

“I like Knockhill as a circuit – it’s completely different to everywhere else we visit in the series. We all know that the track breeds very intense racing and for sure qualifying will be extremely close so we can’t afford to make any mistakes. However, the Type R is our potent weapon and having the weight off, we should be somewhere at the sharp end of the pack.”