Andrew Jordan was delighted to have left the penultimate round of the 2013 British Touring Car Championship with an extended point’s advantage, having conceded he’d see his lead slashed.
With the 1.64m Silverstone National Circuit expected to suit those cars with the most boost and least weight, Jordan expected a damage limitation weekend yet heads into the season finale with a 34 point advantage.
“It’s brilliant to have extended the championship lead to 34 points,” explains the Pirtek Racing driver. “I had a figure in my head of leaving Silverstone with a 15-point lead, having lost half of my lead, but it turned out so much better!”
Qualifying saw Jordan finish 10th fastest with the maximum 45kgs of success ballast on board the #77 Honda Civic and he was happy to have got the maximum out of the session.
“We had 45kg of success ballast on the car and I knew I’d got as much out of the car as I could,” he added.
Lining up 10th for the first race, Jordan was able to climb the order to finish 6th overall and limited the points loss in the Championship standings.
“In the first race I got up to sixth, which amazed me with the weight we had and the horsepower disadvantage we’ve got,” Jordan said of round 25. “I thought we were going to struggle to keep in the top 10 but I made some good moves through Copse and kept it nice and clean.”
The second race of the day saw Jordan bolt on the soft Dunlop tyres and he ended up within 0.244s of his seventh victory of the season, as he worked his way up the order and briefly led. With the fastest lap to boot, Jordan lost two points to Jason Plato but outscored his main Championship rivals as they finished behind the Pirtek Racing driver.
“We’d chosen to use our soft tyres in race two and I’m amazed no-one else did it,” he said. “That was when we were going to be at our lightest. We thought we’d finish outside the top five in race one, which we did and so we had no penalty weight.
“It worked out perfectly. I got through to second and chased after Jason Plato. I had a good old race with him. He nibbled me in the back at Luffield and I elected to settle for second, which was still a very good result.”
With the top six drivers reversed for the final race of the day, this left Jordan 5th on the grid and on the normal Dunlop tyre compared to his rivals. He brought the car home 5th to complete a strong weekend and put him in pole position to secure his maiden drivers’ title and retain his Independents’ title at Brands Hatch.
“I thought if we got a top eight it would be really good, as most people were on their soft tyres and we were back on the harder tyre. It was a hard race and I was over the moon to end up fifth,” Jordan concluded.