[1] Born in Stourbridge, Neal started out in Motocross but moved into cars in 1988, driving in the Ford Fiesta XR2i category.

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.

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.

He finished the championship placed 14th in the drivers standings on 266 points, taking one win in the final round in Portugal.

A one-off appearance in the ASCAR championship at the end of 2002 saw him running as teammate to his future rival Jason Plato.

1 Honda Integra and captured the championship again with a string of consistent finishes; 4th place in round 28 being enough to clinch his second title.

BTC-spec cars such as the Integra were no longer eligible for the main 2007 title, so Dynamics switched to a Honda Civic, using some of their existing running gear but doing development themselves.

A huge crash in race 1 of the second meeting at Brands Hatch left him briefly hospitalised; the lost points from this saw teammate Gordon Shedden outpoint him to finish 3rd overall, with Neal 4th.

He attracted controversy during the season's final race, in which Fabrizio Giovanardi and Jason Plato fought for the drivers' title.

[14] Prior to the Silverstone round Neal broke his finger in a martial arts accident but was passed fitted to race by a doctor[15] He underwent surgery before the season finale at Brands Hatch, Alain Menu tested for the team as a possible substitute for Neal in the event he was unable to race.

For the 2021 season, Neal made no appearances on the BTCC grid for the first time since his debut in 1991, after Team Dynamics lost backing from Honda and GS Yuasa and obtained sponsorship from Cataclean: as a result the team fielded Shedden and Cataclean-backed driver Daniel Rowbottom as their 2021 line-up.

[21] In May 2009 he gave both the Beijing gold medallist and 2008 World Cycling Champion, Ed Clancy[22] and double World Cycling Champion, Rob Hayles, masterclasses around Oulton Park in a Vauxhall Astra 888 road car, prepared by Triple Eight Engineering – the team behind VX Racing.

[23] In March 2015 he drove for Milltek Sport in their diesel Golf in the Mugello 12hr race finishing second in class, a week later driving a 500Hp 1979 Bastos Chevrolet Camaro with David Clark he won the Gerry Marshall Trophy race at the Goodwood Members Meeting.

In 2012 Matt achieved the grade of 2nd dan black belt in the British Free Fighting Academy, after training with martial arts instructor Andy Hopwood.