Paul O’Neill returned to the podium last weekend in his Go-Mobile.co.uk Chevrolet Cruze for the first time since the opening round of the season as he finished second in the third race of the day in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton.

The Widnes-racer capitalised on the reverse grid during race three which saw him start from the second row of the grid. Paul managed to hold his own through the early stages of the race before finally making a move on the SEAT Leon of Dave Newsham at the Montreal chicane. The move proved successful and Paul started to break away and bring his Chevrolet Cruze home in 2nd place and give him his best result of the season.

“It’s been a good weekend,” he said. “I spoke to the team before we came here and we agreed that we had a chance to run towards the front if we got things right here because the chassis of the Chevrolet is so strong, and we got a good result in the first race which we were then able to build on in the two that followed.”

Paul also commented that the car was in the best condition that it’s been for the whole season. He went on to say, “This is the first weekend where I can say that we’ve really been able to race against the turbo cars and I was actually able to overtake a car with a turbo engine in it.”

“On the grid before the first race, Marvin came on the radio and said ‘Go out there and enjoy it’. That’s exactly what I did and I made sure I never lost my focus behind the wheel and we’ve reaped the benefits. As I said before the weekend, our season starts now.”

Paul O’Neill now sits 6th in the Independents Drivers Championship just seven points behind 5th place Rob Collard, in the other of the S2000 specification cars.

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.