WORCESTERSHIRE ace Matt Neal's gritty performance fired him firmly into Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship title contention at Croft.

A trio of strong top-10 finishes vaulted him up to third from sixth in the drivers’ standings at the midway point of the campaign.

Both Neal and Droitwich's Halfords Yuasa Racing team-mate Dan Cammish had to dig deep after struggling for speed in qualifying around the North Yorkshire circuit.

The three-time champion placed 15th on the grid and the BTCC rookie 20th among the 32 drivers.

Neal fought his way to ninth in race one and was moving forward again in the second when elbowed onto the grass by a rival, relegating him to 11th.

But he recovered to seventh and completed his points tally with a solid fourth in race three after briefly pushing for the podium.

On home turf, Yorkshireman Cammish, 29, found the going tough in the opener and crossed 19th.

But with his Honda Civic Type R improved for races two and three he stormed to 11th and 10th.

Neal has 127 points in the chase for the coveted crown with Cammish 13th and setting the Jack Sears Trophy pace.

Halfords strengthened their grip on second in the teams’ table with Honda second in the manufacturers’ classification ahead of the next outing at Snetterton on July 28 and 29.

Neal, 51, said: “We really had to fight for every single point there and my car ended up looking a bit battered and bruised.

"I think all the Hondas suffered and Croft is normally a track that suits us.

"We know there was some boost equalisation going on so that likely had a bearing on the weekend.

"We lacked speed in qualifying but came through well to crack the top 10 in race one and could have finished a fair way further up the order in race two ­— the Civic Type R felt really strong on the harder tyre ­— but for the contact.

"It would have been nice to finish on the podium in race three.

"Ultimately we didn’t quite have enough but fourth was still a very solid result and we scored good points towards the championships which is a positive way to go into the summer break.”

Cammish said: “It was certainly an uphill struggle. I arrived having never driven a front wheel-drive car round Croft before and with not a lot of time to adapt during free practice.

"We definitely missed a trick. We were nowhere in qualifying so we changed the set-up massively for race one but that only made things worse.

"Fortunately, Matt went in the other direction and it worked for him so we copied that and from then on things picked up.

"I did the best job I could but Matt’s greater experience definitely told.

"Race two was solid but we didn’t really have the pace on the hard tyre in three.

"This championship is tough but as a driver I’m learning and improving all the time and that’s the main goal.”

Colin Turkington leads the drivers' standings on 162 from Tom Ingram on 143.

Reigning champion Ash Sutton, of Adrian Flux Subaru Racing, ignited his title defence with a double victory at Croft before BTC Norlin Racing’s Daniel Lloyd claimed the final contest.