Honda’s Matt Neal faces a race against time to be fully fit for this weekend’s penultimate British Touring Car Championship meeting, after injuring his right hand in a martial arts training session.
Former triple champion Neal fell from first to fourth in the championship after a disastrous meeting at Rockingham last time out, and is now 34 points adrift of series leader Andrew Jordan.
The Honda driver’s latest setback means that he has now injured a hand in three consecutive years at decisive stages in the championship battle.
Neal recently completed a pre-Silverstone shakedown test with relatively few problems and is hoping for medical clearance to be able to race at Silverstone this weekend.
Due to the fact that his left hand will do most of the work during the races, including gear changes as well as steering control, Neal believes that the injury should cause him comparatively fewer problems over the weekend.
The 46 year-old will see a specialist on Friday who will be able to make the decision whether to race or not on medical grounds.