Matthew Stephen Phillip Neal (born 20 December 1966) is a British motor racing driver. Neal is a triple BTCC Champion having won the British Touring Car Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2011. Neal is also a record 6 time BTCC Independents Champion having won the title in 1993, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2006. He is also a race winner in the European Touring Car Championship. He is 6' 6" (2 m) tall, making him almost entirely unable to race single-seaters. He is also the Group Marketing Director at Rimstock, the alloy wheel manufacturer founded by his father Steve. Career Early years Born in Stourbridge, Neal started out in Motocross but moved into cars in 1988, driving in the Ford Fiesta XR2i category. He was the British Group N Champion in 1990 and 1991. He also co-drove a BMW M3 to victory at the 1990 Willhire 24 Hour race at Snetterton. British Touring Car Championship (1991–2001) Neal made his BTCC debut with Pyramid Motorsport at the Silverstone round of the 1991 BTCC season driving a BMW M3. He finished 13th in his first race before returning to the series two rounds later at Oulton Park with the Auto Trader Techspeed Team in another BMW M3. After that race he would race for the team two rounds later at Donington Park. For 1992 he joined his father's Team Dynamics team driving the BMW M3 which Will Hoy had taken to the championship title the year before. The car was badly damaged in an accident forcing Neal to switch to the new BMW 318 for the final race of the season. He won the Total Cup for drivers without manufacturer support in 1993, before joining Mazda for a season cut short by a huge crash in round five at Silverstone. He rejoined Dynamics for 1995, remaining for several years and he occasionally humbled the big names, as well as winning the Independents' title three further times in 1995, 1999 and 2000. In 1999 he caused a sensation by winning a race at Donington Park in a Nissan Primera, the first Independent to do so in the modern era, winning him a £250,000 prize from BTCC series promoter Alan J. Gow. He took a further win a year later, having been considered a driver to cause a surprise in the championship. The championship's regulations changed for 2001, and Neal briefly joined Peugeot Sport