THE countdown has begun! Less than two weeks remain before the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire greets Britain's biggest motor racing series - the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Broadcasting live from the event on Sunday, September 18 will be Britain's most popular commercial terrestrial television channel ITV1 - Silverstone is one of the seven BTCC race days receiving live coverage in 2005.

The Northamptonshire circuit hosts the penultimate round of this year's BTCC and, with the title race on a knife edge, there are bound to be plenty of frayed nerves and tempers among the top drivers. That in turn is bound to lead to some of the closest racing of the 2005 season.

Team Halfords Honda Integra driver Matt Neal currently leads the championship. Neal took his sixth win of the season last time out and stretched his lead over Vauxhall's Yvan Muller to 30 points.

Muller, though, refuses to give up and on Luton-based Vauxhall's home circuit is confident he can take a big bite out of Neal's lead and force the title to go down to the wire at Brands Hatch on October 2.

Making it impossible to predict how Neal and Muller will fare at Silverstone is the fact that five other drivers have all won races this season and are all out to score as many points for themselves.

Keep a close eye out for Team Halfords' Dan Eaves, SEAT Sport UK's Jason Plato, Vauxhall's Colin Turkington, Arena Motorsport Honda Civic driver Tom Chilton and Rob Collard, in the WSR team's MG ZS.

For the all-important spectators, there will be three Touring Car races and a chance to meet the championship's hero drivers during a paddock autograph session on race day.

In addition, there will be eight more races on show from the BTCC's exciting, high-profile support championships run by prestige manufacturers BMW, Porsche, Renault and SEAT.

Discounted race day tickets - £15 instead of £20 on the gate - can be booked in advance by visiting www.silverstone-circuit.co.uk