What's happened to Matt ?

[Super Tourer]

What's happened to Matt Neal's much vaunted title aspirations ?

Bearing in mind that the '99 Nissan was so far ahead of the game last year, have Vauxhall and Ford made massive strides or is Dynamics not getting the best out of the car?

The early races were supposed to be were Matt did well whilst the works teams got their act together. I understand that Matt got sent to the back of the grid for one of the races, what happened in the races ?

Has anybody compared Matt's qualifying times at Donington to last years times by Leslie and Aiello.

I await info from you !!!

[RIKB]

Unfortunately comparing his qualifying times to those of Donington last year, tells us nothing. Donington last year was Matts weekend, He set the pole in one race and second on the grid for the other. Outqualifying the works team.

Last years times = Round 1 1:10.283 (2nd) Round 2 1:10.081 (1st) He only registered a time in one round this year 1:10.52 which was well down the field. Poles being 1:10.021 and 1:09.929, both set by Rydell.

Fastest laps in the races last year were
Round 1 1:11.345 set by Leslie
Round 2 1:11.731 set by Plato.

Matts fastest laps in this year races were
Round 3 1:11.229 compared to Menu's best 1:10.983
Round 4 1:11.563 compared to Rydells' best 1:10.997

As you can see, compared to last years fastest times he has the race pace, but the works teams are even faster.

Add to that there is a great deal of difference between the '99 car and the '98 that he ran last year, so the team are still getting to grips with it.

Also there may be some truth in Matt saying he is the victim of team tactics, it is always going to be three against one.