Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden gave Honda a dream start to the 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, with two out of three race wins for the factory team at Brands Hatch. Watch highlights of the whole weekend here:
However, it was WSR BMW's Rob Collard who drew first blood, taking victory in the opening race of the championship. Starting fifth on the grid, Collard got off to a flying start and was up to second position by the end of the opening lap. He went on to pass his teammate, Andy Priaulx, on lap 13 after the WTCC champion's soft compound tyres faded.
The two Team BMR Volkswagen Passat CCs of Aron Smith and Jason Plato took full advantage of Priaulx's misfortune at Paddock on the same lap, with the teammates putting pressure on Collard all the way to the chequered flag.
New MG recruit Jack Goff impressed on his debut for the team, bringing the car home in fourth place for the factory team, after fending off a determined effort from 2014 champion and BMR's third driver, Colin Turkington.
Gordon Shedden, in Honda's all-new Civic Type-R, finished a close sixth with Turkington's teammate Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal rounding out the top eight. Priaulx eventually crossed the line in ninth, while the Toyota Avensis of Speedworks Motorsport's Tom Ingram completed the top 10, after a tustle with the Mercedes A Class of Adam Morgan at Graham Hill Bend earlier in the race.
Two-time champion Jason Plato began race two on pole position and quickly asserted his dominance by opening up a four-second gap over Gordon Shedden and Andy Priaulx. However, with only three laps remaining Plato ran wide at Paddock Hill Bend after suffering a front-left puncture, which let Shedden and Priaulx through to battle it out for top honours.
Priaulx got the run on Shedden exiting Clearways, but the Scotsman regained the lead going into Paddock Hill and into Druids. The pair were neck and neck right to the chequered flag, with a photo-finish and a gap of just 0.040sec separating them.
Turkington rounded off the podium for Team BMR, while Adam Morgan snatched fourth place ahead of Andrew Jordan, the Speedworks Toyota of Tom Ingram in sixth and the WSR BMW 125i of Sam Tordoff. Matt Neal brought the new Honda Civic Type-R home in eighth, while MG's Jack Goff and the Audi A4 of Rob Austin completed the top ten.
The final race had Rob Austin start on pole position, after he was selected in the reverse grid draw. He got his A4 saloon off to a fine start and held his own out in front as Matt Neal pipped Goff off the start line for second place.
The safety car then made an appearance to deal with the stranded BMW of Rob Collard which had left the track.
Following the restart, it unfolded into a three-way battle between Austin, Neal and Goff, as the Audi eventually succumbed to the pace of the Honda and MG with just five laps to go.
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Let's face it, the car is irrelevant
Neal not Neil
Unexpected performance from the Type R Honda's of Shedden & Neal, both of whose qualifying performance indicated more work needed to be done on their Honda Type Rs.
Both Drivers however are extremely competitive, and defied forecasts.
2015 looks as though winners could come from a variety of teams. BMW, VW, MG as well as Honda. Audi seem more competitive here than in previous seasons and slightly surprising that Mercedes seem to be again amongst the back runners.
BTCC has excitement in bucketfuls, thank heavens that Bernie has no connection with this series, where the driver is king (despite weight penalties)