Matt Neal took to the track for the first time this year at Rockingham on Friday as he performed shakedown duties for Team Dynamics.
The Civic is based on the 2009 car with a few changes including a complete new front end, revised rear end (suspension), a new aero package from MIRA and an new top end engine by Neil Brown.
We briefly spoke to Matt to asked his thoughts about getting back on track after the winter break, “Always get a few butterflies on way to circuit for first time in year, but all felt pretty good.” said Neal.
With mixed weather conditions throughout the day the test didn’t go as planned but was still very valuable. “Test went ok, was damp all day which made it pretty tricky, there were certain things they couldn’t check out with chassis and engine as we couldn’t generate the lateral loads in wet conditions, but all in all ok” added Neal.
With the new season kicking off at Thruxton on 4 April and media day due in March there is still some time before driver plans are announced, Neal let on to nothing when we quizzed him but it is expected that he’ll rejoin Team Dynamics, with Steve Neals’ ideal line up placing him with ex-F1 driver Johnny Herbert.
Check out our photos from the test HERE.
