Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing seek to maintain momentum at Croft

Uncategorised,Racing

BMW Pirtek Racing driver Andrew Jordan will seek to enter the summer break on a high when the first half of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season draws to a close this weekend at Croft.

Andrew heads for the North Yorkshire circuit buoyed by a fine weekend last time out at Oulton Park, where he breathed new life into his challenge for a second championship title.

Having endured a tough start to the year, Andrew was on fine form in round four of the year with a double podium helping him to bag a huge haul of points in Cheshire.

It means the 29-year-old has now moved up to seventh in the championship standings and is just 31 points off top spot going into the latest three races of the year.

Like Oulton Park, Croft is a circuit that should play to the strengths of Andrew’s West Surrey Racing-run BMW 125i M Sport with rear-wheel drive cars having always gone well in the past.

In fact, you’d have to go back to 2012 to find the last time a BMW failed to win at Croft – meaning the current 1 Series has won at least one race in North Yorkshire every season since it was introduced into the series.

Croft is also a venue where Andrew personally has an astonishing record of 27 top ten finishes in 30 starts – including his maiden BTCC victory back in 2010, a win that was also the first in the series for Pirtek Racing.

“We have some good momentum behind us after the results at Oulton Park and I’m heading for Croft in confident mood,” he said. “To come away from Oulton with the second highest points score was really good, particularly as we are now going to another circuit where rear-wheel drive cars have traditionally been strong.

“I’m sure that that will be the case again this season and the target is to put more strong points on the board. If we can gain similar results to Oulton Park – or even better – then that will help us to move further up the standings as we go into the summer break.

“Of course wins and podiums are the aim, but we also need to play the long game as we’ve already seen this season that consistency is going to be key in building a championship challenge.  We had a difficult start to the season but recent meetings have seen us consistently running inside the top six and picking up the points, which is what we need to keep doing.

“I expect our qualifying and race pace to be strong this weekend and having started to score the results that our pace deserves, I hope it can continue this weekend and we can head into the summer on a high.”