Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Matt Neal says he was “riled” by the pace of old rival Jason Plato during qualifying for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone.
The triple champion heads the second row for race one, but was provisionally on the front row with rival Plato on pole before BTC Racing’s Chris Smiley split the pair in his FK8 Honda Civic.
He told TouringCars.Net he felt encouraged to push harder in a bid to match Plato’s pace during the half-hour qualifying session, as well as helping out team-mate Dan Cammish’s title hopes.
“Jason being up there riled me! I thought, old rivalries never die, do they?
“So I was trying to get on the front row so we could have a bit of an elbow!”
“But in all seriousness, I was trying to help Dan but he’s just got a bit too much weight that he was dragging around with him.
“I managed to get a good lap in. You always think, what if? But I did get pretty much the perfect lap, especially as we’ve got a bit of weight on board.”
As Neal heads the second row for the opening encounter, he feels confident of strong race pace if the track stays dry, but believes it will be a “lottery” if the predicted rain arrives tomorrow.
“Who knows what the weather is going to do tomorrow?
“If it’s dry then I think we’ve got pretty good race pace, if it’s wet then it’s just a lottery,” he said.
“No-one has been on this surface in the wet so it’ll just be about sticking your finger in your air and seeing how you get on.”
Asked how much of his focus will be on helping title contender Cammish tomorrow, Neal believes teamwork could factor in more later in the day across the trio of races.
“A fair bit of it will be. We’ll see how the start and the first lap go, and then work our way from there throughout the day.
“One of our strengths has always been working as a team so that won’t change.”
The opening race at Silverstone is scheduled to get underway tomorrow [29 September] at 12:00 BST.