In preparation for the 2012 British Touring Car Championship season, Honda began testing of the new Civic race car at Brands hatch circuit.
In its first public outing, Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal put the Civic BTCC – or Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) as Honda refers to it – through its paces at the legendary race track. Before this the team had a successful preliminary test at the MIRA test track last week where the car underwent extensive system checks to ensure it is fully functional.
Matt Neal and the Honda Racing team spent Friday acclimatising to the car and making sure it’s safe and ready for track testing. The next testing session takes place at Donington Park circuit on Thursday 23 February.
Matt Neal commented; “This is the first opportunity we have had to get behind the wheel to really see what the car has got. The team are really pleased with the results from the test at MIRA last week and I can’t wait to finally start putting the car through its paces.
“It will be interesting to see how the car performs, but I’m optimistic that we’ll walk away from today confident we have a championship winning car.”
Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden added; “The feedback on the new Civic NGTC car so far is incredibly promising and I’ve been itching to get into the car since the end of the 2011 season. Like Matt mentioned, this is the first time we have had to really push the car and I’m looking forward to putting it into action.”
