Andrew Jordan admits he is looking to replicate his championship success of 2013 with his then family-run Eurotech Racing outfit as he prepares for his maiden campaign with Motorbase Performance in the British Touring Car Championship.
Jordan has been widely tipped as a championship contender in Motorbases’ all-star lineup of Jordan and Mat Jackson, who claimed four race victories in impressive fashion after rejoining the series at the halfway stage last season, and already believes the team are in a position to be competitive from the first rounds at Brands Hatch in April.
If we’ve got a car that’s quick enough, which I think we will have, we’ll be winning races and podiums straight away and then you’ve just got to play the long game with the consistency.” he told TouringCars.net.
Last season, Jordan’s one and only campaign with MG Triple Eight Racing, marked the first year since 2009 that the Midlands-based driver has not taken a race victory.
He admits that he is now looking to replicate the strong engineering setup he achieved at Eurotech Racing between 2010 and 2014, in which he claimed his first and only overall drivers title to date.
“[On the] engineering front, I think when we won the championship we were very strong and that’s the level I always try and aspire to. Us as a team, and Motorbase, that’s what we’re trying to get it to,on the engineering front, and Mat is obviously going to be very quick as well.”
“I think, when I look back to 2013, that was probably about as good as you’d get on the engineering front and how it was run. We’re trying to replicate that, this year, here. [I’m] looking forward to getting started.”
He also paid tribute to his recently confirmed team-mate Mat Jackson, admitting that the identity of his fellow Motorbase driver had been no secret for a while. He also believes the two are set for a positive inter-team relationship, and is hopeful the two can move Motorbase up a level towards their maiden championship win.
“I’ve known for a bit it’s going to be Mat [Jackson]. It’s great, we’ve already done a test together and get on really well. It’s going to be a really strong team, hopefully we can move everything forward and be challenging.” he commented.
Jordan was among a host of cars in attendance at the notoriously challenging Thruxton circuit on Wednesday and Thursday, completing a range of running in varying weather conditions before damage to his striking new chrome blue Ford Focus ST cut his program short.
Explaining the cause of the early retirement, Jordan admitted his main concern now is the car being prepared for it’s journey out to Portugal at the weekend, where the Motorbase pre-season testing schedule continues.
“It was just an oil line, I think, nothing huge but we’re going to Portugal on Sunday so [we need to] get that back to the workshop and get it sorted. We’ve had some good running though, so it’s all good.” he explained.
He also admitted that, whilst others starting their testing programme with the new RML parts is less than ideal for him and the team, he believes their trip abroad will allow them to close any development gap to their nearest rivals.
“We’ll be there or thereabouts I’m sure, it’s just some of the other guys have gone and done some testing on the new kit – this is our second day on it, but we’re going to Portugal for three days with it. [I’m] very happy and very confident.” he enthused.
He also briefly explained the reason behind testing at Thruxton, which struck some as an odd move given the unique nature of the circuit in context to the rest of the calendar, with a unique tyre compound and several setup avenues in use only at the Hampshire venue.
Jordan also explained that, for once, the introduction of the new technical components means the lessons learnt from running at Thruxton could, for once, be applied more broadly to the cars development at other circuits.
“It’s more Thruxton-specific, but in saying that because it’s early days on this new suspension kit, we’re working through some stuff on that as well. But a lot of it is just building data and building info for when we come and race here. We’ll be doing a lot of our big, serious testing out in Portugal where it’s warmer.”
Both Jordan and his new Ford Focus ST challenger will be in attendance at the official Season Launch, scheduled to take place at Donington Park on the 22nd March.