Matt Neal pleased with Honda progress

Matt Neal admits he is surprised to be so well placed going into a three week break in the BTCC season following his strong results on track at Thruxton.

The Honda driver had endured a challenging start to life with the new Civic Type-R FK8 and headed to the quickest circuit on the calendar last weekend having taken just one top six finish from the opening two meetings.

It left the triple champion playing catch up in the standings but a strong weekend at Thruxton saw him secure pole position for the second season in a row before a fine drive in race one enabled him to take a first win with the new car.

A further podium in race two and eighth place in race three mean he now sits sixth in the standings, 27 points behind leader Adam Morgan, and Neal warned there is still plenty more to come.

“I didn’t think we’d end the weekend that high in the points,” he said. “At the same time though, it’s wide open at the moment and we know that anything can happen. I’ve reminded the lads about the fact that a few seasons ago, Flash [Gordon Shedden] was more than 50 points behind in ninth spot at half-way – and we know what happened then.

“I think we still have work to do with the new car in wet trim but the warmer conditions and the fact that Thruxton is better suited to us really helped. I didn’t expect the pace that we showed in qualifying and race one, and I think race three showed we have work to do in traffic where the car is more reliant on the aero.

“However, we know the car isn’t going to get worse, it’s only going to get better. Some of the other teams have sorted packages and can just keep picking up the points whereas we are improving all the time, whilst the likes of Adam Morgan, Tom Ingram and Jack Goff have stepped up to the plate this season.

“These ‘new guys’ aren’t new anymore and have a good few years of experience behind them, and you’d expect them to be in the title fight as they are now.”