After winning the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship Driver and Manufacturer titles just last weekend, Vauxhall’s works team is already pushing forward with its 2008 plans.

New signing, Matt Neal, has been on track at Silverstone today familiarising himself with the Vauxhall Vectra and getting to know his new team.

The double BTCC champion’s input will be vital in developing next year’s car after VX Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi beat SEAT’s Jason Plato by just three points to the Drivers Championship, in one of the closest BTCC battles of all time.

With such strong competition, the team knows it cannot afford to rest and the 2008 testing programme got off to a great start today with Neal impressing bosses with his high levels of consistency during his first outing in the Vectra.

Matt Neal #4
“It’s been going great today! The Vauxhall Vectra is quite different to what I’m used to, but the car has some very strong features.  

“It's just a nice all-round package; the engine especially is excellent. It's very good on the fast straights and I think we will be looking very good for next year.

“It’s exciting to work with a new team. There are many new faces but also old colleagues, which is nice and everyone has been really friendly and helpful."

Ian Harrison, Team Principal
“The lap times were utterly irrelevant today with the amount of interruptions we had. The run was just to give Matt a feel for what’s under him. It gives us a very early indication of the direction he wants to go so that when it does get serious we know what he wants.

“It was a very relaxed working environment; no problems whatsoever. It’s not going to be the same car that’s out there today when we race at Silverstone so it’s impossible to make predications and it was Matt’s first go in the car.”