Honda Racing's assault on the BTCC begins

The 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship blasts into life at Brands Hatch this weekend and Honda Racing drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden can't wait to launch their campaign for glory.

Both racers will strap themselves in to the Honda Civic fitted with a new two-litre turbocharged engine for the new 30-race campaign. They are aiming to defend the teams’ and manufacturers’ titles that they scooped last season and claim the drivers’ trophy which they both narrowly missed out on last year.

They will also be showing their support for the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal by sporting the web address – redcross.org.uk/japan - across the back window of their Civics for the opening rounds of the season. Given that both Pioneer and Yuasa, the team’s main sponsors, are also Japanese, the team wanted to acknowledge the earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Japan on 11 March, causing widespread destruction and suffering. By prominently displaying the web address Honda Racing hopes to encourage fans to visit the website and make a donation towards the relief effort.
 
The battle begins...
Neal, a former double champion with Honda, thinks that the battle for the title this season will be stronger than ever. “We have a new engine to get to grips with but other teams and drivers have new combinations to get used to as well.

“We have undergone a very successful testing programme but you never know exactly how hard rivals have pushed so it’s impossible to say how we’ll match up to them in the first qualifying session of the season on Saturday at Brands,” he added. “All we know is that we have concentrated on our own car and our own performance and we are very pleased with where we are at in terms of the set-ups we’re likely to use.

“With any new engine, it’s going to take a bit of time to get the maximum out of it but I think we are in a position to collect a healthy haul of points this weekend and get the championship ball rolling.”

Neal’s team-mate Gordon Shedden tested the reworked Civic at Brands Hatch this week in the build up to the season and says he is certain the hatchback will perform well around the 1.2-mile circuit.

“We know from last season that the chassis was very strong and fitting the new turbo engine has given us more power so on paper we should be in a better position than last year,” said Shedden, who completed more than 170 testing laps on Tuesday. “We still have work to do and it’s going to be interesting to see how the extra power affects everybody’s race pace. More torque is going to mean more tyre wear as the races go on, so that could cause a few surprises. The Honda Racing Team has worked incredibly hard on the handling of the car and I think we’ll see the benefit of that when the chequered flag drops on Sunday afternoon.”

The 30-minute qualifying session on Saturday afternoon at 15.40 will be broadcast live on ITV’s website. Brands Hatch’s opening three rounds of the year take place on Sunday and will be screened live on ITV4. Fans can also follow Honda Racing on Facebook and Twitter for news and race results as the action happens - facebook.com/HondaRacingBTCC and twitter.com/hondaracingbtcc