Sam Tordoff was delighted to have claimed third on the grid for Sunday’s opening British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone, having previously prepared himself for a ‘tough weekend’.
The West Surrey Racing driver’s free practice results – a brace of 13th-places – appeared to be indicative of a trying event at the Northamptonshire circuit, which has not traditionally been favourable to the squad’s BMW 125is.
But a great final lap in the dying seconds of qualifying promoted Tordoff to the second row of the grid, ahead of Triple Eight Racing driver Andrew Jordan.
Speaking to TouringCars.Net, Tordoff was taken aback by his result – and admitted that it was owed in part thanks to receiving a tow on his final lap.
“We were fully braced to have a tough weekend here;” said the 26 year-old. “I was going into qualifying thinking if we could scrape the back end of the top ten that’s going to be as good as we’re ever going to be.
“That was just because of the straight line deficit – the corners are great and I think our sector two shows that because I think we’re one of the fastest and it’s just Brooklands and Luffield.
“But I managed to get a tow off Jack Goff on my second set of tyres and suddenly we found about three tenths – I thought ‘wow, this is the only way we can do it; if I can get a tow then that is going to put us much further up’.
“The third set of tyres went on and I managed to get in a good position with Adam Morgan and thankfully he towed me round and on the very last lap of the session we found half a tenth and we’ve moved up about six places.
“When it works for you it’s great. I was really expecting a tough day at the office and a tough day tomorrow – but thankfully the tow has made all the difference.”
Having admitted his surprise, Tordoff felt that his raceday ambitions were far more positive than they had earlier been thanks to his grid slot – but insisted he had not lost sight of how difficult Sunday’s three events would be.
“It changes things a lot; I thought it [Sunday] was going to be tough, and it still will be but actually having gained all those places through qualifying it makes race one much easier starting P3 instead of P10 or P12.
“We’re still going to struggle in a straight line [and] it’s crucial that I get pulled along in a train. I’m going to need at least two or three cars in front of me to pull me along and we are still going to be vulnerable at the end of the straights so I’ve got to be wary of that, but basically we can perhaps have a much better day than I thought.”
That optimism was boosted by the BMW driver’s tyre choices, which he thought would serve him well.
“We’ve gone [for the soft tyre in] race one,” said Tordoff. “I think the soft tyre will suit us around here; I think we’ll be quicker in soft tyre trim, that should help with the fastest lap situation for race two.
“I don’t really foresee having to worry about tyre degradation so much so I think we can go on and push.”