Angry Neal aims to bounce back
An angry Matt Neal has vowed to make up lost ground after being restricted to just a single points scoring finish as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship burst back into life at Snetterton.
Neal was involved in a clash with long-term rival Jason Plato at the start of the opening race of the weekend that saw him spin in front of the field and saw him finish well down the order and outside the points.
Although he fought his way into the top ten in race two, the Honda driver was then forced to pit with a puncture and again failed to score although he was able to secure fourth place in the final race.
Neal has now slipped to third in the standings, ten points behind Mat Jackson, but said he would do all he could to fight back when racing continues next month at Knockhill.
"I made a brilliant start from fourth place on the grid and was alongside Jason, who was in the lead, going into the first turn and he just hit my car from behind," he said. "I spun across the track at 120mph, which was pretty scary and I am thankful no one else touched me.
"I am angry because my chances were spoiled by an avoidable incident in race one which also put me at the back for race two, so that was two big points scoring opportunities gone. I was happy to get back to fourth in race three but when you consider what we should have been able to achieve here, I am annoyed. Still, there are plenty of races to go and we will work extremely hard to make up the ground we have lost here."
