Goldfinch, how deep are your drops? One solution that would be kind to your neck AND let you go faster is shallow drops. That would let you ride on the hoods or even the tops at a level comfortable for your neck, and would give you less severe drops for speed.
Another, very counter-intuitive way to accomplish this would be, if you've got room for more spacers on your steerer, is to RAISE your bars so that the drops are at the "speed" height you want, but not so low that they hurt. Of course, this puts your hoods up even higher than they are now, which might be useless for you.
This combination - shallow drops and a higher, shorter stem was one of the results of my pro fit. I now have drops that are a little below the seat level, that I can ride in for speed for extended periods, and tops and hoods that are really neck-friendly. Just a thought. It certainly doesn't look as cool as having a lot of seat to bar drop... But I'm almost 60 years old, and looking cool isn't the priority it once was.
