Round 9 - Rockingham - Driver quotes

Top 3 drivers

Matt Neal made the better start - in fact the TV replay proved it to be faultless - and got ahead of his Honda team mate. Leading a race is not a new experience for Neal, but this year it has usually been a cue for a gremlin to strike. No such bad luck this time, and Matt came away with the first ever BTCC win at Rockingham.

Matt Neal: It was a good start.

Yvan Muller: It was a jump start!

MN: Nah! I was lucky with the start becuase if I hadn't got in front of him, Alan would have been gone. He was on fire before the pit stops. After the stops, with a fresh set of front tyres on, I seemed to get a better balance than Alan did. He pushed hard for a bit and came back to me. The pit stops were fantastic.

Alan Morrison: All year I've been making good starts - and some jump starts! - but today it was just a bad start. Matt drove a fantastic race. I'm disappointed that I didn't win but it's great for Honda, back on the front of the grid for the second race.

I had some good battles, I was down the inside a few times and if it had been somebody else maybe it would have been different but he's my team mate - no way am I going to do anything to jeopadise a 1-2. I'm just glad for Honda Racing - it's been hard all year but the boys have worked well in the pit stops. In all the stops here they've been on top of it.

In the last few laps I backed off slightly. Matt had slightly better traction but there's no point pushing and pushing then going off.

MN: There was some oil on the track too. That's what really split us up because Alan was right on my tail again after the stops. I had a big slide...

YM: At the pit stop you two were so close, like this [Yvan, gesticulating wildly, demonstrates how close the two Hondas came to touching] but he just missed you and I said "Shit! He missed!"

Tom Chilton - Honda Racing

In qualifying I got held up on the second half of my lap which cost me a lot of time. So instead of maybe having a 1-2-3 I qualified down in sixth.

But I got a good start - went from sixth to fourth. When I got into the first corner I slightly outbraked myself and went round the outside of the hairpin. I lost a lot of places, I was about 14th in the middle of the production field. I ended up battling through that lot and ended up fourth. I got past some very good experienced drivers which I'm happy about.

For the next race starting from the second row on the grid is definately going to be easier. I hope to prove to Honda that a 1-2-3 is possible, and it will be.

Mike Earle - Honda Racing

You must be very happy!

I am! I'm very happy. A little disappointed for Tom, if he hadn't dropped off at the first corner we could have had a 1-2-3 but that's being greedy!

Over the last few laps it didn't look as if Matt and Alan were really racing? Was that your decision or theirs?

They were both having grip problems because their tyres were gone, Matt got on the radio and asked "are we racing?" and the answer was "yes". They were both so equal. Alan lost the gap a bit when Reid tried to overtake him, but they were so equally matched that he couldn't close it back up again.

You've had the measure of the Vauxhalls here - is that likely to be the way it goes for the rest of the year or was it just at this circuit?

I'd settle for the next race to be honest, because with the weight in it'll be a different thing. In the next race we'll have the weight so then I'll tell you whether or not we can handle them for the rest of the year!

Tom Boardman - Team Varta

For a brief while Tom lead the race outright, although in fairness this was due to not having to make a pit stop unlike his BTC-T peers. We asked him what it felt like.

Absolutley great! You don't really feel hapiness until the flag though, all you're thinking is about keeping your head down and staying in front of the guy behind. Only at the end when you come round the last corner do you get that feeling of hapiness.

When you get the Touring Cars behind you, how tempting is it not to let them though and make them race you for position?

You can't make it awkard because you know they're quicker. What I try and do is let them pass then tuck in behind them to get a bit of a drag, more speed down the straight and a better lead.

I had a bit of a problem because I came together with Warren Hughes on the infield and it was vibrating a lot and got a bit bad to drive.

Rob Collard - Collard Racing

That was a fantastic little battle behind the leaders - talk us through it?

Dan Eaves - Team Halfords - DNF

Another race to forget for Dan Eaves as, along with his team mate Carl Breeze, they both failed to complete even one lap. Dan tells us what hapenned:

Paul O'Neill ran wide coming out of the first hairpin. I went past him as he came back onto the track, in the next corner he locked up and smacked into the back of me, which smacked me into James Kaye I think it was, and then into Carl. It broke Carl's front wishbone and did all my rear suspension in, so we both retired.

The car didn't qualify well here, but generally how is it running?

It's very encouraging, we're getting the car handling better. We've still got a couple of issues that we're trying to overcome but hopefully we'll have done that for the next race.