WORCESTERSHIRE race ace Matt Neal will be back in the British Touring Car Championship this season.

The 35-year-old from Hanbury, near Droitwich, will be lead driver in the Egg Sport Vauxhall team, a satellite team of the works Vauxhalls and run by the same Triple Eight Race Engineering team.

He will drive one of the team's two Vauxhall Astra Coupes, and is confident he can add to his two previous race victories in the series.

Neal said: "I didn't think I'd get the chance to be in a front running BTCC car, so it's a great opportunity."

He previously raced a Nissan Primera in the championship with the privately-funded Team Dynamics squad, based in Pershore.

In 1999 he earned a £250,000 prize when he became the first ever independent to win a race, at Donington Park. He won again at Brands Hatch the following year, and has taken the Independents championship four times.

Last year he signed for the works Peugeot team but funding problems forced him out after just one race meeting.

He spent the rest of the year competing in selected rounds of the European Touring Car Championship in a Nissan, taking a win in the final race of the year at Estoril in Portugal, and also raced in Australia.

Neal will be one of six drivers racing Vauxhall Astras this season.

The second driver in the Egg Sport team has yet to be announced, while the works Vauxhall team will be spearheaded by Yvan Muller and James Thompson.

Barwell Motorsport's two privateer entries include 16-year-old Tom Chilton, a graduate of the junior T-cars Saloon Series.

The first two of the 20 rounds in the series, which will be televised by ITV this year, will be at Brands Hatch on Easter Monday (April 1).