Podium joy for Sunshine.co.uk

Tue 4th August 2009 Team sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Motorsport has secured its first HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship podium finish after a stunning weekend of racing at Snetterton.

With Barrow-upon-Humber racer Martyn Bell forced to sit out the event with a knee injury sustained in a fall during the summer break, Widnes ace Paul O’Neill was left to fly the flag alone for the Honda team and didn’t disappoint – having vowed prior to the weekend to bring home a strong result both for the team and for his absent team-mate.

Paul was inside the top ten in both free practice sessions and then qualified in a solid eighth place for the opening race of the weekend – under half a second away from pole.

The opening race saw Paul put in a stunning performance as he took the fight to his rivals, making up places to lie fifth when the Safety Car was deployed after James Thompson’s Honda slowed on track. On the restart, Andrew Jordan made an error and ran off track, with Paul sensing his chance to get onto the podium. A move on Jonathan Adam saw him take third and Paul held on through the remaining laps to secure a well-earned and emotional third place.

Paul lost out to two of the fast starting BMWs in race two to drop to fifth place, but battled his way back up to third and was well placed for another podium finish before coming under pressure from former champions Jason Plato and James Thompson. Despite a fine defensive drive, Paul was unable to keep the pair behind but picked up more points with fifth place.

The final race saw Paul again in contention for a place on the podium as he climbed up from sixth at the end of the first lap to fourth before leader Rob Collard went off following contact with James Nash exiting the Esses. With the Safety Car deployed as the field came across the start-finish line, the cars ahead suddenly slowed and Paul was forced to brake hard to avoid a collision, although he still skidded into the rear of Colin Turkington and was lucky not to then go off into the barriers.

With flat-spotted tyres and damage to the radiator, Paul’s hopes of a second podium finish were ended as he slipped back to seventh place on the restart, although he inherited a position after the event when winner Nash was excluded.

His results from the weekend help the team to remain eighth in the overall teams’ standings and sixth in the Independents’ title race.

“It’s hard to sum up the weekend really,” he said. “Tech-Speed and Sunshine.co.uk have given me the best car possible and all I could was go out there and try to get the best results possible. I believe the car is capable of running in the top six at any circuit, but the work we carried in the test really helped. To run inside the top three and get a podium was unbelievable. We thought it could happen, but its brilliant that it actually did.

“There are so many people who have put a lot of effort into getting me back into the BTCC, and they didn’t need to do that. They could easily have gone for a driver who could bring some money into the team and who had a large budget, but they have stuck by me and bringing home some silverware is the best way possible for me to repay them all. That’s why there was so much emotion on the podium and this result is for them – it’s not for me at all. I couldn’t wish to have a better team around me.

“Of course there is some disappointment with what happened in race three and I’m sure Colin wondered what the hell I was doing when I ran into the back of him at 120mph! Without that, I think we could have got a win as I feel I had the pace to get ahead of him and James but these things happen and I can’t complain after the result earlier in the day.”

Having been forced to miss the race weekend, team-mate Martyn was left watch the action live on ITV4 at his home and he was delighted with the results, even if he was unable to join in the celebrations himself.

“If that’s what we put our sponsors and fans through every weekend when they are watching on, then I feel sorry for them as it was tense watching on TV!” he said. “It’s fantastic for the team to finally get some good luck and show that we have the speed in the car without the reverse grid. Paul drove brilliantly. I’m proud that the team did such a great job and can’t wait to be back out on track again myself.”