PERSHORE’S Halfords Yuasa Racing duo Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden have success in their sights as the British Touring Car Championship heads to the Scot’s home circuit of Knockhill this weekend.

At Snetterton, behind the wheel of the Honda Civic Type R, Shedden and Neal signalled their intent with the former battling to his second victory of 2016 and the third-placed latter strengthening his own title bid with a sixth podium finish of the year.

Both men triumphed at Knockhill 12 months ago and the Civic has won at least one race there for each of the past three campaigns.

Defending champion Shedden said: “While the points are clearly worth the same at Knockhill as anywhere else, I only get to race in Scotland once a year so it does mean a lot to me.

“The support I receive is amazing and really gives me an extra spring in my step.

“Having anticipated a difficult weekend, our results at Snetterton definitely exceeded our expectations, enabling us to move up the championship standings and cut our deficit to the top of the table – so much so that I’m actually closer to the lead points-wise than I was at this stage last year.

“We’re right back in the fight and the gloves are off. We’ve obviously got a bit more ballast on board again now but we’re up for the challenge and if we can repeat our performance from Snetterton, that would be phenomenal.”