REIGNING Dunlop British Touring Car champion Matt Neal believes he could still go on to capture a third straight title.

The Droitwich driver has warned that his Team Halfords squad has made another performance gain with its new Honda Civic ahead of this weekend's rounds at Oulton Park.

He arrives at Oulton in Cheshire - the half-way stage of the season - lying third in the championship.

Neal is 46 points, equivalent to three race wins, behind the two leaders, SEAT's Jason Plato and Vauxhall's Fabrizio Giovanardi, but feels that both can still be caught.

Indeed, team-mate Gordon Shedden qualified the Civic on pole position at Croft three weeks ago as both he and Neal looked like potential winners.

"I still think we're very much in the hunt," said Neal. "We've got past the difficult part of the season. Jason and Fabrizio need just one crap weekend and we'll be on them.

"We took a big step forward between Thruxton and Croft and we've gone and made more progress with the car since then for Oulton.

"The fight could start to get interesting now. We need a bit of luck. We had a very fast car at Croft but the luck wasn't there. If that luck changes, then we're still in the hunt."

Neal has also praised Vauxhall for the development it has put into making its new Vectra model a winner.

Giovanardi has won five times in the last three meetings to close to within two points of Plato, who has four victories so far this season in his Leon. Neal added: "SEAT doesn't seem to do anything with its two cars and it's not because I think the team has reached a plateau with them either.

"The team just seems to turn up, polish them and run them. It's Vauxhall which is pushing incredibly hard.

"Before the season started, we looked at running the bigger Honda Accord instead of the smaller Civic and thought it was too big a car, but Vauxhall has gone for the Vectra, a similar size, and made it a winner.

"Hats off to the team and the development isn't finished yet. We're really looking forward to Oulton, but so will be the SEATs, the Vauxhalls and the BMWs.

"Everyone seems to think it could be their kind of circuit. Someone is going to be going home disappointed."