Matt Neal was effusive in his praise for the Halfords Yuasa Racing Type R after he scored a sensational victory in the second British Touring Car Championship contest of the weekend at Knockhill.
The three-time champion led home current standings leader Sam Tordoff by a margin of 1.249 seconds after surging to the front of the field from eighth on the grid in the closing stages, with race one winner Jason Plato rounding out the podium finishers.
Neal’s early race progress was hampered by Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Racing Ford Focus, though once released the Type R came into it’s usual dominant form and hit the front, capitalising on a mistake into the hairpin from Plato whilst keeping Tordoff at bay to claim victory.
For Neal, the victory comes at a perfect time, reducing the margin to Tordoff in the championship to a mere three points and lifting team morale on a weekend of engine woes and frustration at the speed trap results for Team Dynamics.
Speaking after the race, Neal admitted he was a little lost for words after the thrilling encounter, revealing it was as unpredictable inside the crash helmet as it was trackside or live on ITV4.
“I don’t know what to say,” admitted Neal.
“I thought we’d have a chance one minute then I thought we’d have absolutely no chance.
“We got bottled up behind Andy Jordan early on but once we got past it was different. I got up behind Jason (Plato) and he was playing with Sam (Tordoff), then Jason really seemed to start to struggle with tyres. That gave me the opportunity to pounce.”
Neal also admitted he had been expecting Tordoff to force the issue once he took to the front, and was surprised not to see the BMW 125i M-Sport of Tordoff crawling all over the back of him.
“Sam’s been fast all weekend. When he cleared Jason, I thought that would be it.
“Our car was monstrous right through to the end. It bodes well for the last one with Flash on the soft tyres.”
Neal will start the final contest from 6th after Mat Jackson was reversed onto pole position. The race gets underway at 17:10.