7 – Matt Neal
At times during the season it looked as though Matt Neal was the man playing the game to perfection, leading by the halfway stage of the season with more still in the tank.
He was not always the quickest in the first half of the year, but collected the results along the way with consumate ease and picked up a handy four wins in the first 15 races to lead the championship heading into the summer break by 17 points.
The season was going swimmingly thanks to a handsome near-treble victory at Thruxton, but the second half of the year saw Neal soon hit a rocky patch thanks to numerous misfortunes.
A strong recovery from a boost and penalty ballast-assisted qualifying struggle at Snetteton ended with him still leading the championship, but a weekend to forget two events later at Rockingham effectively destroyed his hopes of a fourth BTCC title following a spin on a race one restart and an unfortunate retirement after an off in race two.
His third hand injury in as many seasons late in the campaign also added a pain element to his plate, but Neal bravely soldiered his way to three strong results at Silverstone to remain Jordan’s nearest title contender.
However, a big shunt in qualifying and a race two which ended with his Honda Civic spectacularly launch an inferno under its bonnet ended his shot at glory.
Neal and Dynamics will return with a new Honda chassis in 2014, as he bids for that fourth BTCC title.
