Matt Neal - is he all that ?
Discussion
In the style of a well known radio presenter ; - After yesterdays BTCC finale at Brands it's time to anaylse this guys history , he decided to throw any chance of winning the last race in an effort to slow down the whole field from the front in an effort to get his team-mate Giovanardi into the lead and to take the title , this didn't work and only resulted in causing an accident that took the two Motorbase BMW cars and Chilton out of contention but did also very nearly take the eventual championship (very worthy) winner Turkington out as well. I think it was lucky for Neal that no-one was injured and it really was a case of dubious tactics from team VX Racing Vauxhall and if this had happened mid-season they would have undoubtably been punished. The right man/men won on the day and if VX had won the championship is this really the way they want to win ? Do you really want your product (Vauxhall) to be associated with bending the rules/cheating ? ING - Renault didn't
The question with Mr Neal is he's got form hasn't he ? there's quite a few drivers on the grid that have suffered from his driving , champion he might have been but does he really have to throw his weight around so much , Plato knows only too well what he's capable of and Rob Collard is his latest victim. How much will they let him carry on getting away with ? , discuss.
The question with Mr Neal is he's got form hasn't he ? there's quite a few drivers on the grid that have suffered from his driving , champion he might have been but does he really have to throw his weight around so much , Plato knows only too well what he's capable of and Rob Collard is his latest victim. How much will they let him carry on getting away with ? , discuss.
matt neal was a complete arse in the last race yesterday. as tim harvey said in his commentary 'you reap what you sow' & ultimately his cretinous driving played into the hands of turkington for his championship victory & plato for a stunning 3rd race victory.
neal has always been like that - if he cant win he either sulks or takes people off the track. as he has done to plato & ohers many times in the past.
justice was done yesterday. vauxhall screwed up by trying to use neal as the 'spoiler' in the race. it didnt work out. did it?
neal has always been like that - if he cant win he either sulks or takes people off the track. as he has done to plato & ohers many times in the past.
justice was done yesterday. vauxhall screwed up by trying to use neal as the 'spoiler' in the race. it didnt work out. did it?
That's not really my take on Neal's performance in the last race. As the leader, it is his perogative to limit the pace of the following cars if it will benifit the chances of his team mate progressing through the field into a position where they can take the title. A team boss would expect nothing less. His rejoin onto the track, was a little "enthusiastic", however there was more than one car involved in the build up to what eventually ended up with Collard in the barrier.
Anyway, I digress. I'm no Matt Neal fan from the day that he took a seat in a factory car. I recall that when he was battling through the field in his family run car in the 90s he was a very quick and talented driver, that was a great roll model for any club racer that was struggling to endevour to take the fight to a much higher funded grid of cars. Wasn't he the driver to take the £100k prize for the first indy outright race win?
As soon as he took a seat in a factory car where him and daddy weren't picking up the bill for bodywork and mechanicals, his driving standards plumitted and he eventually became the driver we see today. There is still the talent and pace there, as that is still required to pedal a car to pole position and podium finishes in a series like BTCC even if the driver pedigree has dropped a little since the pro driver super tourer days. Matt Neal's main issues are his attitudes to passing and being passed IMO. BTCC remains officially a non-contact series (Tim Harvey's piece in Evo recently was a good read incidently), however a bit of rubbing and mirror clanging has always been what makes it a good TV prospect. Matt Neal goes too far too often. He seems to find it impossible to make a clean pass without a good solid, well placed barge to make a gap to come through, and ideally put the driver on the grass to ensure that their momentum is lost so they cannot make a retaliation. When being passed by a driver, he will all too often agressively squeeze the driver off of the circuit. By all means defend, but there are limits.
This is BTCC, and he is by no means alone in his propensity for physical driving, however IMO he is head and shoulders (no pun intended) above the rest as the worst out there ..... To add to this, when he samples a taste of his own medicine, he b
hes and whinges like a school kid who's had his ball stolen. Cleland was a whinger, but Matt Neal is a different league.
2010? As a prospect for an Indy team that will need to pay for their repairs from a finite budget? His pace and fame would be attractive, however he is ultimately a liability. Maybe if the family team would have him, or stump up a sponsorship package for a drive for another team he'll be out there. I highly doubt that he is as popular a comodity as Thomo, or other BTCC past masters that have made their way to WTCC or DTM though.
Anyway, I digress. I'm no Matt Neal fan from the day that he took a seat in a factory car. I recall that when he was battling through the field in his family run car in the 90s he was a very quick and talented driver, that was a great roll model for any club racer that was struggling to endevour to take the fight to a much higher funded grid of cars. Wasn't he the driver to take the £100k prize for the first indy outright race win?
As soon as he took a seat in a factory car where him and daddy weren't picking up the bill for bodywork and mechanicals, his driving standards plumitted and he eventually became the driver we see today. There is still the talent and pace there, as that is still required to pedal a car to pole position and podium finishes in a series like BTCC even if the driver pedigree has dropped a little since the pro driver super tourer days. Matt Neal's main issues are his attitudes to passing and being passed IMO. BTCC remains officially a non-contact series (Tim Harvey's piece in Evo recently was a good read incidently), however a bit of rubbing and mirror clanging has always been what makes it a good TV prospect. Matt Neal goes too far too often. He seems to find it impossible to make a clean pass without a good solid, well placed barge to make a gap to come through, and ideally put the driver on the grass to ensure that their momentum is lost so they cannot make a retaliation. When being passed by a driver, he will all too often agressively squeeze the driver off of the circuit. By all means defend, but there are limits.
This is BTCC, and he is by no means alone in his propensity for physical driving, however IMO he is head and shoulders (no pun intended) above the rest as the worst out there ..... To add to this, when he samples a taste of his own medicine, he b
hes and whinges like a school kid who's had his ball stolen. Cleland was a whinger, but Matt Neal is a different league.2010? As a prospect for an Indy team that will need to pay for their repairs from a finite budget? His pace and fame would be attractive, however he is ultimately a liability. Maybe if the family team would have him, or stump up a sponsorship package for a drive for another team he'll be out there. I highly doubt that he is as popular a comodity as Thomo, or other BTCC past masters that have made their way to WTCC or DTM though.
There is playing for the team, then there is being slow and causing incidents, thats what he was doing yesterday.
I'm not sure if Neal is all too comfortable in another team, I personally think he will excel back at the Dynamics team if he goes there.
Crash.net are reporting from Neal Sr that they are hoping to run a Honda backed team next year (Neal & Herbert?) and a secondary team (Pinkney & AN Other?)
I'm not sure if Neal is all too comfortable in another team, I personally think he will excel back at the Dynamics team if he goes there.
Crash.net are reporting from Neal Sr that they are hoping to run a Honda backed team next year (Neal & Herbert?) and a secondary team (Pinkney & AN Other?)
imo neals' driving was appalling. you can just imagine his moaning had plato driven like that. he wouldnt have liked it at all. would he?
team orders, fair enough, but to drive like that & cause expensive accidents is out of order. he needs to be taken aside by both alan gow & the racmsa and warned about his future driving standards.
had giovanardi won the title yesterday because of the way neal was behaving it would have been a travesty.
anyway, giovanardi's attitude was bad as well. when asked by steve ryder before the first race what it meant to him to win three straight titles he simply laughed & said 'it would mean nothing at all...'
how professional was that? & i wonder what the team thought when they heard him say that?
tosser is the word that sprung to my mind when he said. ungrateful as well for the hard work put in by the team over the sesaon.
so plato won three out of three - how superb did he drive yesterday? & turkington won the title.
job done & fantastic entertainment. thank you guys for a great season.
team orders, fair enough, but to drive like that & cause expensive accidents is out of order. he needs to be taken aside by both alan gow & the racmsa and warned about his future driving standards.
had giovanardi won the title yesterday because of the way neal was behaving it would have been a travesty.
anyway, giovanardi's attitude was bad as well. when asked by steve ryder before the first race what it meant to him to win three straight titles he simply laughed & said 'it would mean nothing at all...'
how professional was that? & i wonder what the team thought when they heard him say that?
tosser is the word that sprung to my mind when he said. ungrateful as well for the hard work put in by the team over the sesaon.
so plato won three out of three - how superb did he drive yesterday? & turkington won the title.
job done & fantastic entertainment. thank you guys for a great season.
I liked him when he was in his own/family team - lttle guy against the factory teams type of thing.
But he has become to happy to use NASCAR rules.
In the first race he got a small nudge, not deliberate, in Druids, he responded by punting the guy off in the bottom straight.
Tim Harvey commented on it but, in my mind, made light of it - something like with interest.
Missed the third race so can't comment on it.
Very dissapointed with what his driving style has become.
But he has become to happy to use NASCAR rules.
In the first race he got a small nudge, not deliberate, in Druids, he responded by punting the guy off in the bottom straight.
Tim Harvey commented on it but, in my mind, made light of it - something like with interest.
Missed the third race so can't comment on it.
Very dissapointed with what his driving style has become.
All I can add to this is from the pictures I took yesterday if Mr Neal was running a blocking process as has been suggested in another post, one might expect some damage to the rear of the car as he was getting in the way. All of the images show a nice clean rear (Car that is, I didn’t have the means to check the driver!). If he was deliberately trying to bunt other drivers of the track there would be damage to the front. I also have images from the green flag lap of each race that show the car with a nice clean undamaged front. The images from the races then show different damage to the front of the car for each of the three races. Conclusion is that the team and driver should be ashamed of themselves and I am glad their tactics failed.
The images should be on my website www.clickmotorsport.com tomorrow for you to judge for yourselves.
The images should be on my website www.clickmotorsport.com tomorrow for you to judge for yourselves.
7/11 said:
When Collard punted Neal off at Paddock Bend in his Team Daddy days Steve Neal demanded that Collard paid for the damage, if fact he refused to pay the hire fee for a transporter on hire from Collard.
If ever there were double standards look no further!
Steve Neal was also very vocal about the pile-up at Brands that kicked off with Mat Jackson spinning on the outside of Paddock Hill (wet kerb) in 2007...If ever there were double standards look no further!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMQx_ntLG8w
Neal Snr & Jnr are as bad as each other. Neither would be missed if vapourised by Aliens tomorrow.
Edited by MonkeyHanger on Monday 5th October 22:29
7/11 said:
When Collard punted Neal off at Paddock Bend in his Team Daddy days Steve Neal demanded that Collard paid for the damage, if fact he refused to pay the hire fee for a transporter on hire from Collard.
If ever there were double standards look no further!
Heard that one before, apparently they kept hold of the transporter for a while.If ever there were double standards look no further!
Damage to cars is expensive. Tim Harvey said yesterday Collard's damage he got at Snetterton cost £46,000!!! Ouch! How many years would that keep some of us club racers going!
Wasn't Neal fined a few years ago for a road rage style incident on the in lap AFTER the race?
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
EDLT said:
Wasn't Neal fined a few years ago for a road rage style incident on the in lap AFTER the race?
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
You must be referring to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-6HWPaPVbY
Scooby_snax said:
EDLT said:
Wasn't Neal fined a few years ago for a road rage style incident on the in lap AFTER the race?
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
You must be referring to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-6HWPaPVbY
Matt Neal is a prize wker. Here he is in Aus a few years back overtaking the lead cars whilst being laps down. He cocks up everyone race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IKpiKLv1o
ker. Here he is in Aus a few years back overtaking the lead cars whilst being laps down. He cocks up everyone racehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IKpiKLv1o
I did not like his tactics on Sunday and was so please that CT won. In the end, the team tactics backfired and allowed JP to take second place in the championship so it was also questionable on that front. It did make superb TV entertainment though and I think that is the primary aim of the reverse grid for the last race of each round.
On a more positive note, I recall Neal attending a pretty poor event in Bradford a couple of years ago just to sign autographs. He sat there for hours in steady drizzle and had a smile and chat for every person that queued to get to the front. I thought that he was an absolute hero that weekend.
On a more positive note, I recall Neal attending a pretty poor event in Bradford a couple of years ago just to sign autographs. He sat there for hours in steady drizzle and had a smile and chat for every person that queued to get to the front. I thought that he was an absolute hero that weekend.
mat205125 said:
Scooby_snax said:
EDLT said:
Wasn't Neal fined a few years ago for a road rage style incident on the in lap AFTER the race?
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
He pulled along side someone to shout at them (They dared to overtake him iirc) and then side-swiped their car!
Or there was the time that he interrupted an interview with Anthony Reid (real professional like) so he could shout at him and tell him how bad he was at driving. His body language was that of a school bully about to beat up a smaller kid, all respect to Reid who gave it right back at him although later he said that the Neals tried to get him permanently banned. All that was over a little bit of rubbish which ended with Reid on the grass, nothing special compared to what has happened before and since in many BTCC races imo.
You must be referring to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-6HWPaPVbY
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