02/10/2002

British Touring Car Championship star Matt Neal will race in the ASCAR stock car series championship decider at Rockingham this weekend.

Neal will be reunited with two former Touring Car rivals as the 35 year-old has his first experience of oval racing and the 1.5-mile Rockingham banked oval. He will join former British Touring Car champion Jason Plato behind the wheel of the Bintcliffe Sport ASCAR, the car driven by World Rally star Colin McRae at the Rockingham 500 meeting. Team boss John Bintcliffe raced against Neal in the BTCC when driving for Audi in 1997.

Neal, who finished third in the British Touring Car championship this year behind James Thompson and Yvan Muller, has been looking for a chance to try out the V8-powered, 175mph ASCAR’s this year. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while,” Neal said. “Then Jason Plato rang me and asked whether I’d be interested to race one this weekend.

“Now that the BTCC season has finished, it was an ideal opportunity for me to test the water in these cars. I haven’t sorted out anything for next year yet so I’ll be interested to see how it goes on Sunday.”

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