Temple of VTEC Rumors and News - BTCC - Silverstone

Honda Racing in the points at Silverstone

The Honda Racing duo of Alan Morrison and Andy Priaulx left Silverstone this afternoon with strong top six finishes and a building confidence that the Honda Civic Type-R is well on the way to rostrum results in the coming races.

During a weekend when weather dominated play - with hot sunny conditions during qualifying on Sunday followed by sunshine and heavy showers during the two races today - the Civic Type-R was a strong contender at all times. Andy Priaulx narrowly missed scoring the team's first podium of the season today and settled for a fourth place in the Sprint and sixth in the Feature Race. Andy Morrison scored a fifth place in the Sprint and after leading the Feature Race in the mid stages, he was forced to retire on the penultimate lap with a broken wheel nut.

Qualifying: Alan Morrison qualified sixth for rounds seven and eight of the MSA British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone yesterday with Andy Priaulx experiencing handling problems to find himself 13th and 14th on the grid. Both drivers were generally pleased with the performance of the Honda Civic Type-R; ".we have really made some progress", said Morrison. "We have closed the gap between ourselves and the front runners from two seconds at the beginning of the season to a couple of tenths of a second this weekend. We are now in a very competitive position."

Sprint Race: A downpour immediately before the start of the 15-lap race prompted tyre debates on the grid. Most teams chose to run with wet tyres in spite of the clearing skies and it proved the correct decision in such a short race. Andy Priaulx made a superb start and by lap eight he was running third from 13th position on the grid! The Civic Type-R was flying and Priaulx was threatening the second place car only to lose out on the last corner

When back-marker traffic held him up, causing him to take avoiding action and allowing David Leslie to take his rostrum position within sight of the chequered flag. Alan Morrison - who had kept his dry weather set up - drove to a strong fifth place finish.

Feature Race: A dry start to the 25-lap Feature Race and the Civic Type-R was again in the front running action with Alan Morrison in contention for a podium result. The Ulsterman led the race in the mid stages and by the end of the race, in wet conditions, he was in line for a fourth place finish when he retired with a broken wheel nut.

Andy Priaulx went on to claim sixth place for Honda Racing following a strong performance in the changing conditions.

Alan Morrison (Driver - Civic 27): "It has been a positive weekend. I'm disappointed I didn't finish the second race, but it is great to be up there racing with the front-runners. We have made lots of progress with the suspension and we've been improving a little more every session. We have a definite direction now and the whole team is really encouraged."

Andy Priaulx (Driver - Civic 28): "We've made a lot of progress this weekend. I'm really pleased with the performance of my car in the race. If I had achieved a better grid position, I'm sure we would have been on the rostrum. There has been a fair amount of experimenting going on here this weekend and we have learnt a great deal. It all looks very positive."

Note that in BTCC for the second race there's a "success ballast" , depending of how the cars finished the first one. That's why Prialux could only be six as he carried weight being fourth in the first race.