Champ Neal takes pole and two wins in Ireland.

After two wins and a third place finish for Team Halfords in rounds 4, 5 and 6 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Ireland's Mondello Park, defending champion Matt Neal sits back at the top of the championship table.

Neal put the trying opening weekend to the season at Brands Hatch well and truly behind him by setting pole position with a new lap record, setting a new race lap record and taking two race wins as well as a third place at the tight, twisty and often incident strewn Mondello Park track, located 30km west of Dublin. Neal was even happy about the race win he didn't get as it was achieved by Mike Jordan in Neal's 2005 championship winning car.

"It's been an amazing weekend. I don't know where the pole time came from, we were really hanging it out and it was very close at the front," said Neal. "After taking the two wins I was over the moon and would have happily left the track without taking part in race three but to get a podium was superb there.

"We did get stuck in a fair few incidents in the last race, but to see Mike Jordan win in my old car, the one I won the championship in, was fantastic. He's such a nice bloke with such a nice team. I'm certainly more buoyant leaving Mondello than when I arrived."

There was plenty of pace, sometimes too much, from the second Team Dynamics-built Honda Integra Type R. Gordon 'Flash' Shedden in his second race meeting for the team and his first time at the Mondello track was right on the money and for a time in the qualifying session on Saturday looked like he could well take pole.

The first race for Shedden saw a strong fourth place finish but the Scotsman's start in the second race was a little too quick. As Team Halfords' super-Scot blasted forward from the line and into the first corner his rivals couldn't get out of the way quick enough, although Gordon did later concede that perhaps he was a little too optimistic heading into the corner.

"A rollercoaster ride is probably the best way to put it," said Shedden of his first race meeting at Modello Park. "I was over on the pace in qualifying but the rub of the bean wasn't quite there in the races, but that's motor racing. A big thanks to Matt and the team for showing me the way around here."

A novelty for leaving the Ireland track for the team is having two largely intact cars, and optimism is high heading to the next round of the championship at Cheshire's excellent Oulton Park race track. The Racing Heros duo hope to be grinning like the region's cats when they get there.