Mat Jackson continues his quest for his first Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship title when the series resumes at Oulton Park in Cheshire over the 9/10 June.
Jackson, who celebrates his birthday on race day at Oulton Park is fourth in the Championship standings with two victories to his name – his two victories in 2012 means that he is equal 14th in the all times winners list, one win ahead of double champion John Cleland.
Oulton Park was the scene for the Henley-in-Arden drivers’ first BTCC victory in 2007 and Jackson is hoping to celebrate his 31st birthday with his 19th victory.
“Of course I’m looking forward to it – it’s another chance to take the fight to the Platos and Neals of this world and it’s a circuit I love,” explains the #4 Redstone Racing driver.
“It’s one of the ‘old school’ circuits with plenty of dips, climbs, off-camber corners and blind brows and it’s also high speed with very little margin for error. In fact there are a couple of circuits on the calendar I’d be happy for us to give up if it meant two trips to Oulton during the year! It sorts the men from the boys, there’s always a huge crowd and great atmosphere and to win there really means something,”
Jackson is also predicting the Oulton Park weekend to be one of the closest of the season – he is the leading S2000 driver in the Championship standings while being the lead Independent driver.
“We’ve done a lot of homework back at base during the break and it’s essential this pays off as everyone else will have moved their cars on in terms of performance at Oulton,” continues Jackson.”
“Last year was a bit of a mixed bag for me at Oulton but it all came good in the end with my second win there in the day’s final race. Everyone at Redstone Racing wants more and we need to keep hanging in there towards the top of the table, but until we’re on track at Oulton we won’t know how the S2000-spec cars like the Focus or BMW will stack up against the NGTC-spec cars like the MGs and Hondas.
“I suspect it’ll be quite close with the lighter S2000s perhaps a bit nimbler up the hills and the NGTCs with their bigger brakes and tyres being untouchable under braking. It could be the closest weekend of the season,” concludes the 2008 series runner up.
Qualifying ahead of round ten gets underway at 14.45 on Saturday, 9 June while rounds 10, 11 and 12 will be on ITV4, ITV4 HD and ITV.com. Rounds 10 and 11 will be live on ITV4 at 12.20 and 14.30 while round 12 will be shown later at 20.00. Qualifying will be available online at www.itv.com/btcc.