Matt Neal reckons he's an outside bet to win a third straight Dunlop MSA British Touring Car crown in 2007, but has warned his rivals: "Write me off at your peril."
Neal could only manage a handful of laps in his new Team Halfords Honda Civic at Pembrey on Tuesday before its gearbox broke, curtailing the test. His only previous run was at Brands Hatch the week before, where he and team-mate Gordon Shedden shared driving duties.
But the 40-year-old, aiming to become the first driver to win three straight titles since Andy Rouse in the mid-Eighties, believes the Civic can give him a fighting chance.
Neal told BTCC.net: "I think the others should write me off at their peril. I'd have to put myself down as a bit of an outsider at the moment because we've got a brand new car with very little mileage on it, but on the other side of the coin it looks like a fantastic motor so I could argue both cases.
"We've done one shakedown, a session at Brands in split sessions on quite a damp track and a morning at Pembrey. Every time we go out we're sorting out the niggly little things you get with a new car. Pembrey was the first time we'd started to concentrate on fine-tuning it."
Neal says one of the key areas his team needs to master is the Civic's rear suspension that uses a beam axle. He will next drive the carthis Saturday morning when the Brands Hatch pit lane opens for the first official free practice session of the new 2007 season.
He added: "It's all about understanding the car and particularly the rear beam. It's something new to us and initially we did have a design issue with it flexing; it was a bit fragile but now it's strong enough to do the job. We're starting to understand what is going on in that area.
"I've got say that even though the gearbox let go at Pembrey I feel a lot happier than I felt at Brands a week ago." |
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