MATT Neal this week admitted that during the final few rounds of the 2005 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship he couldn't wait for it to finish.
Most touring car fans would have thought the Hanbury-based driver would have wanted to drink in every last minute of his time at the top of the BTCC standings as he inched closer to claiming the title for the first time in his career.
But for Neal, the wait was excruciating. Although he was always likely to get his hands on the trophy the nervous wait became almost unbearable. However, at the end of the second race at Brands Hatch on Sunday, when Yvan Muller finished 12th and therefore could no longer overtake Neal in the championship, the dream became a reality. Fourteen years after he first took part in the championship, Matt Neal was the BTTC champion.
"Relief is the main word to describe how I have been feeling since Sunday," Neal told The Advertiser/Messenger this week.
"I should have really enjoyed every minute of the end of the season but, in truth, the waiting was terrible.
"There was a great feeling of joy throughout the team when it became official. At the end of the day I am the one who picks up the trophy but the team and everyone behind the scenes have played a very big part in the success.
"If you'd told me before the season started that I'd be crowned champion, when you think of who we've been up against - Vauxhall, SEAT and some other very good teams and drivers - I'd have struggled to believe it."
At Brands Hatch, Neal's family-run Team Halfords squad also became the first independent team to win British motor sport's most prestigious title against the might of the manufacturer outfits since 1991.
And it was in 1991 that Neal made his BTCC debut and since then he has won the independents drivers' title five times and even scooped £250,000 for beating all the manufacturer teams' drivers in a race at Donington Park in 1999. But the overall title has always eluded him. Until now, that is.
Vauxhall, meanwhile, won a fifth consecutive manufacturers' title ahead of SEAT. But it was Team Halfords that clinched the teams' title ahead of Vauxhall's VX Racing squad and SEAT Sport UK.
Team Halfords and Neal also end the season as dominant winners of the Independents Trophy's teams' and drivers' championships respectively.
Although Neal did not win any of Sunday's three races, it was definitely his day.
Neal's Team Halfords teammate Dan Eaves, as well as Jason Plato and Rob Collard were the winners of the final three championship races.
In race one, Eaves led all the way from the first BTCC pole position of his career and set a new race lap record around Brands' full-length Grand Prix circuit to secure his fifth win of the season at the wheel of his Honda Integra. Eaves' only worry came when a safety car period erased his advantage over the field, but at the restart he was again able to draw clear.
Vauxhall's Gavin Smith maintained second until the penultimate lap when he was overtaken by his title-chasing team-mate Muller. On the final lap, SEAT's Plato and Team Halfords' team-mates Neal and Gareth Howell also squeezed past Smith who finished a frustrated sixth.
The result meant Neal's championship lead over Muller was down to 26 points. In race two, therefore, Muller would need to finish inside the top four and score nine more points than Neal if he was to keep alive his fading title hopes.
Then came Neal's moment. As Plato took his third win of the season in race two, it was confirmed that the title belonged to Neal.
Eaves had led from pole position in the day's second race but 2001 champion Plato seized his moment to move to into the lead when the Team Halfords driver made a mistake at the tricky Westfield Bend. Plato then went on to achieve an untroubled victory.
Eaves finished second but all eyes were on Neal in third who, having set the race's fastest lap, crossed the line to become the new Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champion.
Neal's drive to the title was not straightforward, however. Through the first corner, his car was sideways across the track after tangling with Vauxhall's Colin Turkington.
At mid-distance, Neal's Honda Integra and title rival Muller's Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch then dramatically made contact at high speed. Muller's car suffered a punctured tyre and the Frenchman, his title hopes now in tatters, needed to make a pit stop.
Neal, meanwhile, survived to take more than enough points to put the crown beyond Muller's reach.
Muller finished 12th - out of the points - and that meant he was now just four points clear of Eaves in the battle to be championship runner-up heading into the day's third race, the final race of the 2005 season. Rob Collard came out on top of a hard fought final race to take his second win of the season. Collard took the lead at the start, but was under massive pressure throughout.
Neal fell back to an eventual fifth behind Howell when his car's bodywork started rubbing on a tyre.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article