Honda Racing Team Mates Talk BTCC

Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:40

Honda Racing has been the team to beat in this year’s British Touring Car Championship season.

The team’s Honda S2000 Civics (fitted with NGTC-spec engines) have taken an unequalled ten wins from 24 races in 2011. These results see their two drivers, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, currently tied on equal points for the lead of the driver’s championship, with a 24 point margin over their nearest competitor. The Honda Racing Team and Honda/Dynamics also currently have a comfortable lead in both the HiQ Teams Championship and the Constructor/Manufacturers Championships.

At the beginning of this month Honda UK confirmed that Team Dynamics are building the new Civic to the BTCC’s Next Generation Touring Car regulations for the 2012 season. It has also been confirmed that Neal and Shedden will be the two drivers behind the wheel of these new Civics.

However the current focus of the Honda Racing Team and its drivers is on ending the 2011 season on a high. I had the opportunity to speak to Neal and Shedden about the season so far and their expectations for 2012.

How would you describe your 2011 season?
GS: “Eventful. It’s the usual touring car ups and downs isn’t it? I think we’ve both had our fair share of bad luck so far this year when things just haven’t gone to plan. Regardless of all that we still find ourselves right at the sharp end of the Championship, so from that point of view it shows how strong the car has been this year. I think without doubt the Civic is the strongest car and regardless of all the additional penalties we seem to get hit with on a weekly basis we still find ourselves at the sharp end of the Championship so it’s good.”

MN: “It’s been a rollercoaster. The Honda has obviously been treated pretty roughly with the changes to the regulations being made to run less boost than anybody else and increased weight, but we’re trying to make the best of what we’ve got. We’re still there and we’re still fighting and we’ve got a bag full of points to work with, but we’ve got a long way to go still.”

How important is it for you to have a strong performing team mate challenging you every race?
GS: “I think it helps the team as a whole because we can push development of the car a lot harder and faster. I’ve always said that we work well together and obviously that means we can cover a lot more ground in testing. We both know that regardless of the different directions we go the other can drive the car with a different setup. So I think it works well and obviously we’re competitive, we want to push each other to the maximum and ultimately that rubs off on the team. We pull together as a team but we push each other really hard.”

MN: “In one respect it’s your best asset and in the other respect it’s your worst hindrance. You know because instead of the team being focused on you the focus is divided and we’re taking points off each other instead of being focused on picking up points on the one car. Its plus points outweigh its negatives though. One of them team’s primary focuses is winning the Manufacturer’s and the Team’s Championships which we are really strong in and for Honda and Honda Racing that is paramount. When it comes to the driver’s title if we can just get one of us across the line first at the end of the year its job done. If it’s me I’m going to be chuffed to bits obviously, but if it’s Flash I’m going to be so chuffed for him because he’s driven well all year and he deserves it.”

How are you feeling about running an NGTC car next year?
GS: “We’ve started building the car already with the new Honda Civic that was revealed in Frankfurt and everyone is very excited at the team. It’s a new set of regulations, a new challenge and it’s quite interesting. Both Matt and I were involved with this Civic when we started with it in 2007 so we’ve taken that car from a clean piece of paper to the force it is now. I guess everyone in the team is looking forward to the same with the new car and new rules.”

MN: “It’s very exciting. Having an early commitment from Honda to the team gives us continuity. As a driver driving for them everybody in the company from the sales side to the manufacturing side have a real passion, one for the brand but two for the product. That bleeds through and you see it in what we end up racing in. Honda is a world brand and ‘without racing there is no Honda’ was the saying wasn’t it?”

So do you think it’s going to be hard to hit the ground running with the new NGTC car in 2012?
MN: “It’s going to be a steep learning curve for us. It’s something new and there are teams that have already got a year under their belt and there are also some other good teams talking about coming into it now. I’m sure with the new Civic... it looks fantastic, the aero is good on it and the platform is good so who knows but it’s very exciting to look forward to.”

How important will the consistency in driver lineup be for next year?
MN: “Again, we know what each other likes and so if I’m involved in the development then I hope Flash is secure in the mind that I’m going in a direction that we’ll both like and vice versa. So it means we can cover twice as much ground in half the time, obviously we’re just going to get one test out of the car initially. I just think it’s great that the continuity is there. The team know what we like; we know the team gets the best out of the car and all the rest of it. We’ve got new regulations but the one good thing is that we’ve got the same engine and transmission package which we’ve developed this year and that will go straight into it. So that’s proven, taken, given and we know we can put that in the chassis.”

GS: “Again, I think the continuity helps because everyone knows what they want from the car. The engineers speak our language they know what we want; they know what suits us as drivers and what doesn’t. I think if you start adding too many new ingredients into it, I mean the car is the biggest ingredient, but if you start adding different engineers and different drivers you just end up spending half the time developing that relationship between driver and engineer rather than concentrating on the cars. I think it’s a positive all round everyone seems happy. We’re obviously both delighted to have it all signed and sealed so early. Although we’re looking forward to next year we’ve got a Championship to win first.”

The next round of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship will be held at Brands Hatch on October 1-2. By Chelsea Woods , Photos by Marc Waller

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