NEAL TAKES EARLY CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD WITH TWO WINS
Team Halfords’ Matt Neal is the leader of the 2005
Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, after he achieved
victories in two of the new season’s opening three races
in front of live ITV1 cameras at Donington Park yesterday
(Sunday). The Team Halfords squad also heads the BTCC’s
Teams’ and Independents’ Trophy championships,
while reigning champion Vauxhall came away from the Leicestershire
circuit on top of the Manufacturers’ standings.
Neal gave his privately-run Honda Integra a dream debut when
he won the first race of the day after sensationally lunging
past Vauxhall rival Yvan Muller’s VX Racing Astra Sport
Hatch on the last lap. In front of his home crowd, the Birmingham
driver followed that up with third position in the day’s
second race and another win in the third event. In the last
race of the day, Neal was followed across the line by team-mate
Dan Eaves in a famous 1-2.
Neal, nicknamed ‘The People’s Champion’,
not only leads the BTCC outright as the championship heads
to Thruxton, Hampshire on 1 May, but also the Independents
Trophy for non-manufacturer teams’ drivers – a
title he has won four times in the past. However, despite
15 years of trying the outright BTCC title still eludes him.
Neal said: “Two wins, a 1-2 result for Team Halfords
and the lead of the Drivers’, Teams’ and Independent
Teams’ championships … these are amazing results.
I could make friends with anyone right now! But it’s
important to remember this is a team result – a lot
of people have worked some very long hours to make us so competitive.
They all deserve this.”
After second place and a new lap record in the opening race,
Muller, the 2003 Champion, went one better in the next encounter
to give his squad – winner of the Drivers’, Teams’
and Manufacturers’ crowns for the past four years –
its first victory of 2005. But the Frenchman had to work hard
– Rob Collard, the 2003 Independent Champion, was a
revelation all day in WSR’s MG ZS and chased him hard
to the finish. Third position in the third race leaves Muller
second in the championship, just two points adrift of Neal.
Nine behind is Eaves, who also achieved third and fourth places
in addition to his second position in the final race.
Collard lies fourth in the points table thanks to fifth,
second and fourth place finishes at Donington. But there is
work to do for two of the pre-season favourites – VX
Racing’s Colin Turkington and SEAT Sport UK’s
Jason Plato.
Turkington did everything right on Saturday when he qualified
on pole position for his first race with Vauxhall. But in
the race he slipped to fifth and in the second race retired
after a collision with Plato damaged his Astra. In the third
race, a mystery steering problem kept him back in eighth.
Plato, the 2001 Champion, wrestled his Toledo Cupra to sixth
and fifth place finishes in the first two races. At the start
of the third, he took the lead into the opening bend and led
for the first five laps before Neal barged his way past to
win. The incident cost Plato momentum and within two more
corners he was back to fifth. This became sixth when new Vauxhall
signing Gavin Smith also found a way past.
There were hero stories surrounding two new teams to the
BTCC: Fast-Tec and HPI Racing with Friends Reunited. Fast-Tec
driver Mark Proctor got just two hours’ sleep overnight
as he stayed at the circuit until 4am helping his mechanics
fit a new engine to his Vauxhall Astra Coupé after
problems in Saturday qualifying. He was rewarded with a pair
of tenth places and two championship points.
HPI Racing with Friends Reunited, overcoming late development
of its stunning Lexus IS200, achieved an almost dream result
on its BTCC debut: driver Richard Williams finished ninth
in the second race, the final classified finisher, meaning
he took pole position on the grid for the start of race three,
thanks to the BTCC’s reversed grid rule. Alas, a quick
pit stop at the end of the formation lap meant he could not
take up his position on the grid and he was forced to start
from the pit lane at the back of the field.
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