Qualifying: Double pole for Neal

"I've just got as many poles in an afternoon, as I've had in the rest of my BTCC career," said Neal. "I'm gonna grin all night."

The Egg Sport driver now starts the sprint race as a definite favourite, though he's already wondering whether settling for fourth or fifth in the feature race might be a tactically sound move to send him into qualifying for rounds five and six at Thruxton in relatively light trim.

Neal's opening pole time - set in the first half of the single hyphenated session (20 minutes split from a further 20 by a three-minute neutral period) was just a thousandth of a second better than maximum success ballast carrier James Thompson ("I take my hat off to him, admitted Neal) and 0.568sec clear of the second Vauxhall Motorsport car of Yvan Muller in third place.

Muller was Neal's closest challenger for the feature race pole, after the Egg man went even faster in the second half of the session. The Frenchman sneaked ahead of MG's top runner Warren Hughes.

Hughes found a big chunk of time between the first and second half of the session as he made up for lost track time having missed the first free practice of the day.

The Team Halfords Peugeots had shown real promise in free practice - on the circuit where the 406 was most competitive in 2001 - but it all turned a bit sour in qualifying. The cars were sixth and seventh in the first session, with Tim Harvey ahead of Dan Eaves, but at the end of the first period Harvey's engine cut-out and wouldn't re-fire so he missed the second period and so effectively did Eaves after his car failed the ride-height test and had its times disallowed.

"Vic [team boss Lee] likes his drivers to start at the back to get race experience," joked Harvey.

Further impressive runs came from Anthony Reid - fourth for MG for the sprint and Egg man Paul O'Neill - "I can't just go quick, like that - I need my arse kicking," admitted the unnervingly honest O'Neill, after finding a really quick lap to be fourth fastest fro the feature. Colin Turkington gave Team Atomic Kitten a fine kick-off with ninth and seventh fastest times in his updated 2001 MG ZS

James Kaye's new Synchro Motorsport Honda Civic Type R looks to be about to re-set the standards in BTC Production, Kaye was almost a second clear of the pack in the first period and the best part of a second and a half up in part two.


Pos Driver Car Times Speed
Matt Neal Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m27.316s 97.38mph
James Thompson Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m27.317s 97.38mph
Yvan Muller Vauxhall Astra Coupe) 1m27.884s 96.75mph
Anthony Reid MG ZS 1m28.048s 96.57mph
Warren Hughes MG ZS 1m28.118s 96.49mph
Tim Harvey Peugeot 406 Coupe 1m28.136s 96.47mph
Dan Eaves Peugeot 406 Coupe 1m28.259s 96.34mph
Paul O'Neill Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m28.341s 96.25mph
Colin Turkington MG ZS 1m28.843s 95.71mph
David Leslie Proton Impian 1m29.107s 95.42mph


James Kaye Honda Civic Type-R 1m32.784s 91.64mph
Mark Fullalove Peugeot 306 1m33.672s 90.77mph
Spencer Marsh Honda Accord 1m34.100s 90.36mph


Pos Driver Car Times Speed
Matt Neal Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m27.074s 97.65mph
Yvan Muller Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m27.239s 97.47mph
Warren Hughes MG ZS 1m27.345s 97.35mph
Paul O'Neill Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m27.417s 97.27mph
James Thompson Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m27.562s 97.11mph
Anthony Reid MG ZS 1m27.734s 96.92mph
Colin Turkington MG ZS 1m27.983s 96.64mph
David Leslie Proton Impian 1m28.562s 96.01mph
Andy Priaulx Honda Civic Type-R 1m28.689s 95.87mph
Aaron Slight Vauxhall Astra Coupe 1m28.705s 95.85mph


James Kaye Honda Civic Type-R 1m31.806s 92.62mph
Mark Fullalove Peugeot 306 1m33.247s 91.19mph
Spencer Marsh Honda Accord 1m33.949s 90.50mph