Team Halfords enjoyed a double podium performance at Mondello Park in Ireland on a race weekend full of thrills and spills in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The BTCC visited the 2.2mile Mondello Park circuit for the Halfords International Race Weekend and drivers Matt Neal and Dan Eaves both had their work cut out on the tight and twisty circuit.

Saturday saw probably the longest qualifying session ever for the BTCC as heavy rain allied with resurfaced areas of track made for a very slippery course for the biggest grid this season in the series to work their way round. Numerous red flags ensued in the session where Matt Neal placed his Team Dynamics-built Honda Integra in fifth on place on the grid for Sunday's first race.

With maximum success ballast for leading the championship Neal's car achieved an impressive fifth, ready to face the challenge of a difficult to pass track on race day. No stranger to a challenge, Dan Eaves also had weight added to his car for the qualifying session and he started the first race from tenth on the grid.

The first race saw both Team Halfords Intregras move up the order by clean overtaking moves. Neal overtook SEAT's Luke Hines for fourth then Colin Turkington for third and then with his lights blaring he proved to be a real threat for Jason Plato's second position, but the Team Halfords driver kept his driving clean and was unable to make it past the wide Toledo ahead of him and took his third place on the podium. Dan too worked his way impressively, and cleanly, through the field from his tenth place start to take sixth place.

The second race saw the challenge of a wet but drying track, and the difficulty of making the correct tyre choice came to the fore. The start of the race saw Neal pray to Rob Collard's MG and Colin Turkington's Vauxhall, but there was the bonus of both Jason Plato and Yvan Muller receiving pit penalties for changing their tyres too late on the grid and dropping back in the order.

Like many other times this season, Dan Eaves made remarkable progress and he made it past team-mate Neal and numerous other drivers as he charged down on the eventual race leader, Colin Turkington, to come second whilst Neal took another third place to make it another podium with two Halfords drivers in attendance.

The final race of the day once more saw superb pace from the Team Halfords cars when faced with the reverse starting order, but yet again both became embroiled in incidents with SEAT's Jason Plato. Plato first ran into the back of Dan's car, pushing him wide, before coming back to try to defend his position from Matt. Just like at Croft, Plato's contact with the Hondas meant the 2001 champ had to take to the pits, and this time to retire from the race.

"It was all going pretty good in the first two races with two podiums and we were looking like a third podium in the last one, it was definitely on, then our mate Mr. Plato gets involved and for the second meeting in succession he takes out both the Team Halfords cars in one race," said Matt after the final race. "It's not for me to go on and I'm not going to be seen as a winger, but we'll let the authorities decide." Plato was later handed two penalty points on his racing licence for his move on Eaves.

For Dan it was another race weekend of strong finishes although Muller's double win means that he has now dropped to third in the drivers' standings. "Rough and tumble, I think that is the phrase to use," said Eaves of his weekend.

"It's been very difficult, fast and furious. I just drove my own race in race one and picked off people one by one and managed to make it up to sixth. Again race two was a hard race, but we basically made it through the field and got out to the front but Colin had got through a lot quicker than I had and was down the road by the time I got into second. "

Of the final race, Eaves had once again moved forward well after starting the reverse grid in ninth. "It was really rough and tumble - cars firing off in all directions," he said. "I was literally trying to keep my nose clean. Plato crashed into the back of me, but he and Matt had a collision which put me back into third again, but Collard found a way past me after the safety car where I was struggling with my brakes so I was happy to settle for the points with fourth."

Team Halfords left Mondello with two rather battered cars after the action in the final race, but the team left the track where they had expected to face a challenge still with the championship lead in place, and with the knowledge that the next race on the calendar, Snetterton, should be a circuit which suits the slippery Integra.

"We knew Muller and Vauxhall were going to be strong here; it was a question of damage limitation, and we'd done a very good job of that until the third race, we should have got away really well with this weekend because we know that Snetterton we're going to be strong, we should be strong," says Neal looking forward to the next meeting in two weeks time.