Matt Neal looks back on 2003

Matt Neal on the podium at Oulton Park At the beginning of the year Matt Neal was quietly confident that he could challenge for the 2003 title. Moving on from egg:sport to the increasingly competitive Honda Racing team he could see the Vauxhall Astra's dominance being broken and felt that he would be in the right place to take advantage. The first round saw a double win for VX's James Thompson, with Matt being punted off into the gravel in race one by Gavin Pyper before retiring on race two.

Mixed fortune followed, with wins being punctuated by bad luck or poor reliablity. "At least I'm light for the next race" became a catchphrase as time and again the Honda Civic failed to make the finish. Five wins and several podium places meant that Matt came to Oulton Park tied in third place with former team mate Paul O'Neill. With Paul failing to finish, and an engine problem dropping Matt to 12th, it was all to play for in the final race.

Starting from near the back of the grid Matt made a brilliant start, and a hard charging race coupled with an intelligent strategy saw him come through to take his sixth win of the season and a valuable third place in the championship. Afterwards he told us about his year.

That was a good way to end the year, taking third off of Paul.

I thought it was all going Pete Tong, starting from the middle of the pack here - it's very busy and I thought it was going to go horribly wrong. It was all down to the start basically, I made a good getaway and got into some clear space which always gives you half a chance. The team greased the sides of the car before the start of the race!

Back at Donington you told us how important third in the championship would be. Now you've achieved that, how does it feel?

That was the win I enjoyed most this year, it was a proper proper team effort.
Matt Neal

It's one thing finishing 3rd in the championship, but six wins means an awful lot to me. That was the win I enjoyed most this year, it was a proper proper team effort.

I was saying that I wanted to pit late and Alex my engineer said "no, get in now!" which was a good call. Then the boys just turned the car round in no seconds flat! That won us the race. Starting 12th on the grid I just never thought this would be possible.

That's probably answered my next question, what was your best point of the year?

Probably this race, yes. Alan came in with a shout of 3rd place too, so there were three of us going for it at one point.

And low points?

Mondello. It was a great weekend for me last year but just horrible this year. There was so much misfortune, and the weather was atrocious. I came away from there feeling so deflated because I had such high aspirations for the championship but Jimmy and Yvan came away with almost maximum points each and I had a big fat zero - very disappointing.

It was just misfortune really, I was very very down after that. With the limited number of events you've got, and every point counting, you just can't afford to drop any scores. Yvan's won this on consistancy as much as race wins, there's hardly been any races where he's not been on the podium.

You get on very well with Paul, and at egg:sport last year you seemed to take him under your wing a bit. You must be pleased to see him doing so well.

Absolutely. He's an entertainer, a proper funny bloke. A nice guy from a nice family. You'd think that with the success of his sister and the amount of money and that there'd be an aloofness about him but he's a funny bastard - our debriefs used to be hysterical.

And what about next year - any plans yet?

Nothing yet, it's all being sorted over the next few weeks.



Article text by Dave Brockman; this page © 2003 www.BTCCinfo.co.uk.