Honda Racing underlined the increasing competitiveness of its latest Civic Type-R racer when Andy Priaulx scored his second successive podium finish of the season at Snetterton today (Sunday) in round 13 of this year’s MSA British Touring Car Championship. After taking the fight to reigning champion Vauxhall in the previous two rounds at Croft, the two Hondas were again the main protagonists on the high speed Norfolk circuit and, but for a couple of frustrating mechanical failures in round 14, would have collected even more silverware from what was another impressive performance.

Qualifying: Blue skies and high temperatures welcomed the BTCC to the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk and the two Hondas were among the front-runners during Saturday’s two Free Practice sessions with Morrison and Priaulx ending both 40-minute periods in encouraging second and fourth places. Morrison was only hundredths of a second slower than the pace-setting Astra of championship leader James Thompson while Priaulx was the quickest of the heavily handicapped runners – a legacy of his second place finish at Croft.

After such a promising start to the weekend, there was frustration for Honda Racing during the two back-to-back qualifying sessions when both cars suffered from expiring shock absorbers. Morrison claimed tenth place on the Sprint Race grid and moved up fourth for the Feature Race after the team managed to change one of his dampers. “The Honda was quick enough to be on the front row for both races, so I have mixed emotions,” admitted the Ulsterman. “We have proved the car has the speed to compete for pole position but not been able to produce that form when it counts.” Priaulx was again the best of the ballasted drivers when qualifying fourth for the Sprint, but could manage no better than seventh for the Feature as his shock absorbers, too, started to lose their effectiveness.

Sprint Race: Starting from the second row of the grid, Priaulx didn’t make the best of getaways to the Sprint Race dropping back to fifth during the first lap skirmishes. Undaunted the Civic star battled back and was quickly challenging the leaders and when Matt Neal and Warren Hughes clashed, the Channel Islander pounced to grab third place. Thereafter, Priaulx was involved in a race long duel with Yvan Muller – the Frenchman just managing to fend off the hard-charging Honda. “I had a couple of serious overtaking attempts,” said Priaulx. “However it was important for the team to finish on the podium and so, in the end, I was happy to settle for third.” While his team-mate made a poor start, Morrison made a great getaway but, on the narrow track, he found his path blocked by those in front and was forced to take to the grass on the blast to the opening corner. In the ensuing melee, the Ulsterman was bundled down to 13th place. Not to be outdone, Morrison fought back brilliantly making the best of the Civic Type-R’s prowess to finish sixth. “The car was fantastic and I really enjoyed myself passing so many rivals,” he remarked.

Feature Race: Both Hondas made strong starts to the afternoon’s longer Feature Race maintaining their fourth and seventh grid positions during the hectic opening laps with an impressive Morrison harassing the trio of Vauxhall’s up front. Sadly, after eight of 25 laps, the front left tyre on the Ulsterman’s Civic punctured without warning sending the Honda spinning from the track. “It just went ‘boom’ with no warning,” explained Morrison who was uninjured in what was a very high-speed accident. “I had been happy following the Vauxhalls during the opening laps and was just preparing to attack when the tyre blew. A podium was definitely on the cards and a win was a real possibility. I was faster than them.”

As Morrison’s attack ended, so Priaulx took up the chase. Having rejoined the race in seventh place after his mandatory pit-stop, the Honda ace charged up the leader-board and seemed all set to take his third consecutive podium finish as he closed in on the third place MG of Warren Hughes in the final laps. But then his Civic was forced into the pits with a front hub failure with just three laps remaining. “Third place was as good as mine and those points would have made me the top non-Vauxhall driver in the championship,” he stated.

Alan Morrison (Driver – Civic 27): “I feel we’ve been robbed of a really good result this weekend. However, we’ve proved once again that the Civic is now capable of challenging for pole positions and race wins and, as a consolation, at least we’ll start the next races at Knockhill on the minimum weight limit with no extra success ballast.”

Andy Priaulx (Driver – Civic 28): “After Croft we’ve rather upped our expectations, so to leave Snetterton with just one podium finish seems somewhat disappointing. However, I competed here with serious amounts of success ballast in both races and, once again, we were right on the pace, so we must be pleased with the Civic’s progress. Over the past two BTCC meetings we have become serious contenders and we mustn’t forget that to have achieved so much in what’s our first season is remarkable.”

Mike Earle (Honda Racing, team principal): “Although on paper our results weren’t as good as we deserved, we were once again Vauxhall’s closest adversary and Alan’s blow out certainly cost us a third podium result on the bounce and, who knows, may be an outright victory, too. Tyre selection seems to be a lottery in this series; we are all supposed to be supplied with similar rubber, but some of them last for 45 laps with no problems, others blow after 12 laps.”