GoMobile.co.uk with Tech-Speed have their sights firmly set on a positive latter half of the season after they reached half distance of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Croft.

Despite the tricky weather conditions, Paul O’Neill was showing the pace in his Chevrolet Cruze which was good enough to put him 11th on the grid. A risky tyre choice in the first race enabled him to come home in 9th but collisions in race two and three put an early end to his weekend.

“We don’t deserve some of the luck we have had so far this season but we can’t change what has happened and have to look forwards,” said O’Neal reflecting on his weekend. “We are still learning the car and continue to make progress every weekend, as we could see in race two before the retirement. It all looks good for the second half of the season and we saw last year that it was after the summer break that the Cruze really came on song.”

Team-mate, John George, also suffered at the North Yorkshire circuit. A collision with the tyre barriers in race one resulted in the Guernsey-based driver suffering with an injured thumb which caused John a huge amount of pain when he went to change gear. The injury and the damaged car were both sorted and ready for race two where John would finish in 14th which was followed up with a 17th in the final race of the day.

“The incident in race one really handicapped me for the rest of race day as my thumb was extremely painful when I was changing gears, especially on the downshift,” he said. “There had been quite a bit of damage to the car after the incident and the boys did a great job to get me out on track for the second race of the weekend.”

Like O’Neill, John George knows that they have work to do on the car in the summer break but is hopeful that they can use the break to their advantage and go to Snetterton with a strong package.

John went on to say, “I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t achieve more this weekend, but I didn’t quite have the pace. We’ve got a seven week break now before Snetterton so I need to work with the team to see what I can do to improve myself and the car as a package and then come out stronger and faster in the second half of the season.”

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.