PERSHORE Halfords Yuasa Racing enjoyed a successful weekend as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship sped into ultra-fast Thruxton.

Gordon Shedden outscored all of his rivals on the same weekend that Matt Neal reached a major milestone.

Neal and Shedden locked out the top two spots on the starting grid in qualifying, as the former snared his 16th BTCC pole position and the latter belied maximum ballast to join him at the sharp end of the field.

Neal converted that into his 60th career triumph in race one – in so doing drawing level with tin-top legend Andy Rouse in equal-second place on the all-time BTCC winners’ list.

Shedden followed his Halfords Yuasa Racing team-mate home for the runner-up laurels, as Honda cars secured all three spots on the podium.

A similar result looked to be on the cards in race two as Neal led away again, until a power steering issue sent him darting for the pits at the end of lap two.

Upon rejoining the fray, the three-time BTCC Champion posted what was comfortably the fastest lap to underline what might have been.

An early ‘moment’ on cold tyres saw Shedden shuffled back to fourth, but the Scot immediately fought back and was sizing up Rob Collard for the lead when the red flags flew once more – this time for good – on lap seven.

In the day’s finale, from fifth on the reversed grid, Shedden completed his weekend with another very strong finish, while Neal took no prisoners as he scythed his way through from 29th to 10th at the chequered flag – although he was subsequently demoted to 11th after being adjudged to have gained an unfair advantage in overtaking a rival.

Shedden said: “To qualify on the front row with 75kg in the car definitely exceeded my expectations; every lap was an adventure as I tried to keep my foot in for as long as possible through the faster corners around the back of the circuit – there wasn’t much left in the tank.

“I got a slightly better start than Matt in race one, but he was a lot lighter than me so I didn’t force the issue too much. It was fantastic for him to take his 60th BTCC win, and a tremendous effort from the boys to get a one-two.

“We left with three very solid results and a strong points haul – and that gives us a lot of confidence going to Oulton Park.”

Neal said: “After the disappointment of Donington, we needed to bounce back and I’m really going to cherish this 60th win.

“The Civic Type R has always been amazing at Thruxton – we work hard on the aero, and this circuit is primarily high-speed corners.

“Gordon certainly made me work for pole, and to come away with a Halfords Yuasa Racing one-two and a Honda podium lockout on home soil in the first race was a dream – a fabulous result to reward all the guys and girls from the factory who came down to support us.”

Evesham driver Rob Austin has climbed to ninth place after achieving three strong finishes as Handy Motorsport achieved their target of a hat-trick of consistent points results.

Austin built on top four pace from second free practice with the fifth fastest time in qualifying, a lap of 1m16.377 seconds (111.04mph) putting him within just 0.3 seconds of pole position.

Taking weekend best finishes of fifth in rounds eight and nine at the wheel of the No.11 Toyota Avensis, Austin moved up into ninth in the outright championship and with a brace of top three Independents Trophy results Austin has also leapt into the top four of the class standings.

“It’s a really strange feeling," said the BTCC ace.

“The way we’re getting the car to work this season just doesn’t suit Thruxton, but the boys did an awesome job to give me a great car for qualifying and my lap was very satisfying.

"I’ve completely changed the way I drive a car around Thruxton to adapt to the front-wheel drive, I did the research and worked on it.

“The main thing this weekend was to score well in all three races and we achieved that, we’ve shown we can do it.

"We’ve taken a really solid points haul away from our weakest circuit, so that’s incredibly positive and huge credit to the team who worked so hard all weekend. I really wanted to try and take a podium but, even without one, we definitely exceeded expectations.”

Team principal Simon Belcher said: “It’s been a very positive weekend, three good top 10 finishes is what we wanted to achieve.”

A trip to Oulton Park is next on the agenda for Austin and the team on May 20 and 21.