Mat Jackson has been confirmed as the final entry for the 2014 British Touring Car Championship, after the 2008 championship runner-up secured a last-minute deal to remain at Airwaves Racing.
Jackson, who endured a win-less 2013, admits that the deal came about at the last minute after he left the track and had to return on the media day.
“It’s a surprise to me – literally I came here this morning and left with no deal,” said Jackson to TouringCars.Net. “I went back to work, to work on some sponsorship proposals, and I got the phone call from Dave [Bartrum] and in literally 15 minutes up the motorway I was here, so it is news to me as much as anyone else.”
Jackson also admits that putting a deal together had been difficult, hence the late announcement.
“It’s tough. As with everything it is a tough game and it’s not easy, otherwise everybody would be doing it,” admitted Jackson. “It hasn’t been an easy ride but it’s great to finally be here now. We can focus on the first round at Brands and that’s where the focus has to lie really. It’s full steam ahead to get to that point.”
With only Giovanardi having got significant testing mileage under his belt, Jackson admits that he will take some time to get up to speed with the car and set-up changes within the team and is looking forward to moving on from the 2013 season.
“It’s slightly different. Fabrizio likes a bit of understeer and I don’t,” added Jackson. “But we’ve got to see where we are in the car and until we can get on the track who knows. It’s a work in progress.
“It was a difficult year [in 2013] – we don’t really want to reflect on it too much and we look forward to this season. The team’s in a good place – obviously with Fabrizio there’s a huge amount of experience there and we’re looking forward to it.”