MATT Neal believes he can take advantage of the most open British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in years to challenge for the title this season.

The Droitwich driver goes into the first meeting at Donnington Park on Sunday in confident mood after recording the fastest time in testing on March 29.

With the last few year's dominant team, Vauxhall, introducing a brand new car for the 2005 season, Neal feels there is a chance for someone else to win the title.

He said: "Everything's a bit different this season.

"Vauxhall have a new car and no one knows how good it will be.

"In previous years Vauxhall have had the Astra and a reliable platform to build on."

Neal though is faced with testing his skills in a new car after Team Halfords introduced the Honda Integra last week.

Confident

The Droitwich driver is confident the new vehicle is an improvement on the Civic he raced in last season.

He said: "It's got better steering than the Civic, doesn't drag as much and should be more reliable so I'm fairly confident it will be better.

"To some extent I'm in the same boat as the drivers from Vauxhall as the car is new to me."

Neal demonstrated that the new car has the ability to set the standard, when he set the fastest time during the first testing session last week at Donnington.

He set a lap time of one minute and 12.584 seconds at Donnington - the fastest time set by a BTCC car in the modern era.

Neal said: "The car felt good and it's certainly a boost going into the first few rounds at Donnington."

Team Halfords added a little Oriental glamour to the BTCC last week when they launched the Integra.

Neal and fellow Halfords driver Dan Eaves were almost up-staged by energetic performances from the Atsuki Daiko Japanese drummers.

A samurai continued to enliven the launch, before Neal and Eaves emerged from smoke-filled garage with two Japanese models.

Neal said: "I don't know where we got the idea from but it was certainly spectacular!

"Let's just hopes we can continue to shake up the championship."

Neal and his fellow drivers are set for stardom for the second year in a row after the championship agreed a deal to be shown on ITV1.

Up to seven races are set to be shown live by the channel, including the season's opener on April 10.

The remaining races will be covered by ITV's Motorsport UK programme, which is shown on Sunday nights from June.

The championship's support races will also be shown live on satellite channel Motors TV. The Granada-produced live feed will feature commentary from John Hindhaugh, Richard John Neil and Simon Hill, with reporters Nick Daman and Diana Binks.