Photo: Vauxhall media

Vauxhall’s Olympic preparations for Oulton

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Ahead of next weekend’s BTCC rounds at Oulton Park, championship leader Matt Neal has been in action at the Cheshire circuit, guiding top British cyclists and Olympic medallists Ed Clancy and Rob Hayles around the track.

2008 Beijing Olympics Gold medallist Clancy and triple Olympic medallist and double World Champion Hayles were given an afternoons tuition from Neal, as he showed them the perfect lines around Oulton Park in a Vauxhall Astra VXR 888.

After the pair had been showed the ropes, it was their turn to swap their handlebars for the wheel as they each got a chance to take to the track, the nearest BTCC circuit to their Manchester base.

Commenting on his drive, Clancy said:

“Getting a few laps in you start to get to know the circuit, then when you start to get more confident, you realise you don’t know it that well and you could end up in the grass.

It was a fantastic experience on track today. With Matt driving obviously he’s much more of a talent and you can see how it’s done by the pro. With me it was more a battle between myself and the track. It’s hard work, I can see why racing drivers are so fit!”

High praise indeed to come from one of Britain’s best road cyclists, who was in competitive action last week with Hayles in the first round of the new Tour Series.

Their tutor was impressed with both drivers’ performances, adding:

“I think they are both naturally very able and competitive people, but they were very willing to listen and learn which is great when you’re out on track. There were two quite very contrasting styles behind the wheel, but we got to the end in one piece, which is the main thing.

Ed was very gung-ho about it, it wasn’t for the faint hearted. Rob is older and more experienced with it as he’d done some track driving before. He takes it all in and moves forward with that, he’s much more like an experienced race driver to be honest. By the end of the day though after some tips and tuition, they had very similar performances.”

Hayles is also currently the British champion on the road, something that Neal will no doubt be hoping rubs off on him this season.