Croft frustration for Jordan and Pirtek Racing

Uncategorised,Racing

Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan endured a frustrating weekend at Croft during rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at the North Yorkshire track (27/28 June). A sixth place in the opening race was a good start, but after that the day turned to one of frustration, capped by a non-finish in the final race.

Andrew went to Croft on the back of a good weekend at Oulton Park in the works MG6 GT run by Triple Eight Racing. However, the results at Oulton Park meant that the MG was carrying 48kg of success ballast for the start of the Croft weekend. In the circumstances, Andrew was pleased with his pace, although being just eight-tenths of a second away from pole left him tenth place on the grid.

“I was happy with qualifying as the data showed there wasn’t much more to get out of the car,” said Andrew. “The extra weight was really hurting us.” Despite the handicap, he raced well to fight up to sixth place in the opening race. “Our pace in race one felt pretty good and sixth place from tenth on the grid was as much as I could get.”

Sadly, it all started to go wrong in the second race as Andrew ran the soft tyres and was struggling for pace very early in the race. He eventually dropped back to 14th place, powerless to defend as the grip disappeared. “The performance just dropped off a cliff. I could feel it as early as the second lap. I was not expecting that at all as usually we are strong on the soft tyres. I was very surprised to be as weak as we were.”

To compound his problems, Andrew started 14th on the grid for the final race and was forced into retirement early in the race after contact with another car broke the rear suspension on the MG. “The result of race two left us starting race three where we didn’t want to be. We shouldn’t have been back there and that sort of incident is inevitable,” said Andrew as he reflected on a difficult weekend. The BTCC now has a six-week summer break before the action resumes at Snetterton in Norfolk (8/9 August).

Pirtek is Europe’s number one provider of hydraulic solutions and mobile hose replacement, with over 170 centres supported by over 700 mobile service workshops throughout Europe. Offering solutions to a number of business sectors, including the automotive industry.