Rob Collard and Matt Neal reflect on “respectful” Race 2 battle

West Surrey Racing’s Rob Collard and Team Dynamics Honda driver Matt Neal put on a show in Race 2 after all the early drama had subsided, with the two championship rivals going side-by-side with Neal defending against the option tyre-shod BMW driver to hold on to the final podium spot.

Neal managed to come away with the final spot on the podium despite Collard, who broke the lap record in the BMW 125i M Sport as he closed down on the leading trio, having significantly more pace than the Honda driver.

Collard drove up the inside of Neal at Hamilton, but the triple-champion held his ground and was able to hold position around the outside of Oggies and to the inside of Williams to keep the spot.

“That proved how classic touring cars can be with two drivers who give each other respect,” said Collard to TouringCarTimes.

“I caught him napping a little bit and got up his inside and we went side-by-side through two corners, and at the third corner I conceded as I wasn’t going to put myself on the outside going up the back straight…I just thought about the reverse grid and concentrate on the points.”

Neal was surprised in the pace of the BMW, which had struggled in qualifying with Collard having qualified a lowly 18th.

“I thought there was no way he was going to catch me with three laps to go, but he caught us like a missile. The first half of the race was just crazy, I lost how many times I was all four wheels off the grass, then I thought I could just concentrate on Turks, but Collard was on fire, he was in a different race.”