Matt Neal again ?????

marcus · 28 Jul 2001, 14:31 (Ref:123030)

Hi folks ..some of you may remember I asked a question about Matt neals experience in high powered cars a little while ago ...well he has arrived in Australia but unfortunately has not redeemed himself from last years disaster at bathurst when he decided to take out 1st and 2nd while being lapped..i was all for giving the guy another chance in a V8 ..but the dilema starts with this little story.

Matt is driving for the "Big Kev" V8 team as a team mate to team owner Paul Morris...now paul is also a 2 litre driver and thinks that Matt can handle a V8 ...lately Paul has found extra speed in his VT Commodore and in fact at the last round came home for his first ever victory in the class...a watershed breakthrough if you will...this left the team with a big problem to solve....the team have built a brand new VX Commodore ..and with his sudden turn around in speed of Late they didnt know whether to put Neal in the old car and let paul at the new one or have paul go for a race win in the proven car and give Matt the brand newey (No not Adrian

)

in the end it was decided that paul would stick with the old car to give the team maximum exposure at the front of the field while Matt could hopefully sort out the new car and learn about V8 supercars from towards the back ....but what happened...all I can say is this .

the guy has gone and destroyed a $350,000 race car in one stupid move to try and be a hero in qualifying for no reason at all...sorry but I was gonna give him the benefit of the doubt but please come and take the boy home before he hurts himself

**touringlegend** · 28 Jul 2001, 16:19 (Ref:123086)

Holy ****!

All I can say is..

..at least Peugeot got rid of him before he sent their budgets through the roof!!!

DNQ · 29 Jul 2001, 00:17 (Ref:123180)

Is the car written off, Marcus? I only saw the crash on the news last night, and haven't really been able to find out much more.

pink69 · 29 Jul 2001, 00:34 (Ref:123184)

The same scenorio with chris Walker. we can't tell how hard it is to adjust to diffrent styles of car just like that so give him some time he will adjust. if not, then he should stick with what he knows, the 2 litres as he has done for the last few years.

marcus · 29 Jul 2001, 01:54 (Ref:123189)

I dont know if its a write off DNQ...but it sure is a mess and wont be cheap to fix.

Pink ...while I agree that it is hard to adjust to new cars and we should give some drivers some time ..the problem here is Matt has had a little time in the car and can drive it ..but Matt was driving way over himself..he doesnt know the car that well and had never seen the track before and had a heap of horsepower to play with and just plain mad a mess of it all ..from what I saw he was way to quick for the corner and should never have been going that fast in the first place.

Crash Test · 29 Jul 2001, 10:53 (Ref:123235)

The exit of the dogleg is one of those really tough corners on the Oran Park layout. Saying that, 9999 out of 10000 laps by drivers of these cars have no problem with that part of the track.

Write off- well I'd say it is fairly rooted- the Smash Repair Team can usually repair a write off overnight, obviously it is pretty bad. I'd imagine it might need to be re-shelled.

But anyway you look at it, Matt made a goose of himself, and did his reputation absolutely no good at all.

hunttheshunt · 29 Jul 2001, 14:35 (Ref:123309)

Well hopefully he'll be back in the BTCC next year anyway!

Guy Goddard · 30 Jul 2001, 09:14 (Ref:123681)

Matts on the way back for BTCC next year...

Two options emerge,

Team Dynamics may have secured the ex Jason Plato car for next year as Vauhall will be selling both and getting a new 2002 spec.

or

A drive with MG in a third car or possibly replacing Hughes, that said Nigel Mansell is also in the frame connected to the team although this may only be on a consultant basis rather than a drive.

hunttheshunt · 30 Jul 2001, 18:38 (Ref:123908)

Well i can't see Team Dynamics not entering next year. And because they will again have a competitive car (2001 Astra Coupe, like the ST Primera they used) it would make sense for Neal to go back to them. Having said that, MG would be very attractive for Matt.

Tim.Lad · 30 Jul 2001, 18:55 (Ref:123928)

I thought it was common knowledge that all 4 Vauxhalls have already been sold for next year ?

hunttheshunt · 30 Jul 2001, 21:03 (Ref:124010)

Apparently they have-to me there seems some likely suspects;

Team Dynamics
Arena International
Team B&Q
HTML (if they are not buying the Pugs)
GR MSport

+ some other teams who may not have entered this year. Looks good for next year though!

Super Tourer · 31 Jul 2001, 07:16 (Ref:124166)

What a prat !!!

Matt does tend to overdrive, back in the '98 BTCC he spent more time on the grass than on the track !!!!

How to make a good impression - not.......

hunttheshunt · 31 Jul 2001, 19:20 (Ref:124435)

Remeber in '98 Neal was biffed off the track by works' cars more than often.

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