Dan Cammish endured a tough weekend to open his 2019 British Touring Car Championship campaign, but his Honda team leads the BTCC manufacturers’ table following the opening three rounds of the 2019 season, while Halfords Yuasa Racing team-mate Matt Neal had a podium finish in the final race snatched away on a difficult day of ever-changing weather at Brands Hatch.

The Honda Civic Type R FK8s of Dan and team-mate Neal secured sixth and seventh on the grid after a challenging qualifying session in which the track steadily became damper, and which was interrupted three times by red flag stoppages.

Race one was decided before the start when light rain resulted in the front half of the 30-car grid, including both Halfords Yuasa Hondas, switching to treaded wet-weather tyres.

But the rain eased and those towards the rear who had gambled on starting on slick dry tyres simply drove through the field. Dan endured a difficult race to finish 15th, his Civic hit at one point by a spinning rival, but Neal finished the best of the ‘wet-weather’ runners in eighth, overtaking five cars that had started in front of him and securing the manufacturer’s prize for Honda.

Race 2 proved frustrating for both Honda drivers as they fought to overcome the frantic midfield battles on the tight circuit. Neal lost several places with wheelspin at the start but recovered to take 11th while Dan staged a recovery from 16th start spot to finish just behind his team-mate. Neal’s day was then considerably brightened when the reverse-grid draw for the final race put his Civic Type R onto pole position.

Neal’s Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda was beaten away at the start of race 3 but quickly closed on leader Stephen Jelley and took the top spot on the seventh of the 24 laps. The Honda, however, was running the softer-treaded option tyre mandatory for one race per meeting, and as it started to wear Neal was soon closed down and passed by Tom Chilton and Rory Butcher.

Dan endured a frustrating race. Also on the soft option tyre, he was caught up in the  midfield battles, finishing 14th in the middle of a frantic pack of battling cars. Up front a battle with a resurgent Jelley meant Neal and his cars made contact at one point. Neal looked to have held on to the final podium spot until heading on to the last lap damage from earlier contact caused a rear suspension breakage. The Halfords Yuasa Racing driver dragged his crippled machine across the line to salvage eighth place, and this was enough to put Honda at the head of the manufacturers’ championship at the end of the weekend.