Neal tips Plato for title

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Sun 11th March 2007 Defending champion Matt Neal is tipping arch-rival Jason Plato to steal away his Dunlop British Touring Car crown this year.

Neal’s team is racing to get its new Honda Civic ready for the opening rounds at Brands Hatch on 1 April – the car isn’t scheduled to break cover until next Tuesday’s (13 March) pre-season media day launch at Rockingham in Northants. Plato, though, starts the season with his tried and tested SEAT Leon.

“Jason and SEAT last year stole defeat from the jaws of victory – this year they’ve got to be favourites,” admitted Neal. “In this series you must hit the ground running. If Jason does that – and he should as the Leon is a tried and tested car ­– then we¹re all going to have a problem.”

He added: “We need to get on the track and be in the hunt. We need to get the car sorted quickly. If we don’t bleed too many points early on we should be able to come back and put him under pressure as we develop our car.

“If you watched how the Vauxhalls were very strong in 2001/02, they would win it at the beginning of the year. We would all go on to beat them at some stage but by then it was too late. They just need to keep clocking up the points by that stage.

“You’ve got to hit the ground running which I think Jason has figured out now. I’ve seen him in print saying you’ve got to win at the start of the year and if he sticks to that we’re all going to have a problem because he’s got a known package.”

But Neal believes if he can rattle Plato into making mistakes – the pair clashed infamously on several occasions in 2006 – and stay in touch during the opening bouts, then he will give himself a chance of catching back up to the SEAT driver could during the second half of the season.

Neal joked: “All I need to do is see if I can rile Jason up so that he loses the plot and then we might all have a chance.”