.... 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.
