Pirtek Racing star Andrew Jordan has moved to the head of the Independents’ Championship standings despite a tough weekend on track during the latest rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park.
Andrew went into the event buoyed by his performance in the previous meeting at Thruxton, where he secured a first win at the wheel of his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus.
A tightly-fought qualifying session saw Andrew lap within half a second of pole position, although the close nature of the times meant he had to settle for twelfth on the grid for the opening race of the weekend.
Making up one place off the line, Andrew would fight his way into tenth spot to pick up solid points for his championship tally and then followed it up with an eighth place finish in race two, despite an early scare when he was hit in the rear going into the Island Hairpin on the opening lap.
That result meant Andrew went into the final race of the weekend – his 250th in the BTCC – seeking to make it a hat-trick of top ten finishes and another eighth place finish allowed him to strengthen his lead in the Independents’ standings.
Admitting that a lack of straight-line pace compared to some of his on-track rivals had hampered his challenge, Andrew instead preferred to look to the positives, with his points from the weekend also proving to be enough to allow him to break into the top six on the overall championship standings.
“This was one of those meetings where things just didn’t go our way,” he said, “but we have come out of it with three points finishes to our name and with the lead of the Independents’ championship.
“Given how hard it is to overtake at Oulton Park, race day was always going to be a challenge after qualifying in P12, but we weren’t helped by the straight-line performance of some of the other cars, who could just drive away from us.
“Unfortunately, that is something that is down to the regulations and is out of control, so we simply had to focus on doing the best job we could with the package we have.
“The team has done a good job, as ever, but this weekend was one where we had to play the long game and make sure we picked up the maximum points possible in terms of the championship.
“Our consistency was reflected in our results this weekend but hopefully when we get to Croft, we’ll be in a position where we are able to once again challenge at the sharp end of the grid.”
Select a country