Independent Neal enjoying 'dream season'

To back that up he finished second in the Feature race at Oulton Park, following home championship leader, and works Nissan driver, Laurent Aiello.

That result means that Neal has also risen to a somewhat improbable second place in the championship, aided by the closest challengers to Aiello failing to score a point between them.

'That result was totally unexpected - going in, I would have been happy to finish seventh,' explained Neal. 'Second is pretty special.

'The first part of the race was pretty busy; there was all the mess at the first corner. Then, when we got started again, I was up behind the Renault Laguna of Jason Plato - too close, and that hurt my front tyres. I ended up dropping back, and Yvan Muller then had a go.

'But we got Muller back on the pit stops, and we ended up with such a gap that we could just control it. The tyres, the brakes - everything was really strong, right to the finish.'

When asked about his championship position, Neal seemed almost disbelieving.

'I've just been looking at the standings, and I thought, No way, I just can't believe it. Mind you, Aiello is still way out in front - at the rate he's going, if you added up the points of all of us, he'd still beat us.'