Despite extending his advantage in the Independent Drivers standings, Andrew Jordan is hoping for a better run of luck in the final nine races of the British Touring Car Championship season after some frustrating results last weekend at Knockhill.
Jordan, the overall champion three seasons ago, has found a new lease of life at Motorbase Performance after a season with the works MG team that heralded no race victories and sporadic visits to the podium.
After battling to results of sixth, eighth and ninth across the three races around the challenging 1.27 mile circuit, Jordan now holds a 25 point advantage over team-mate Mat Jackson as Motorbase continue to rule the roost as far as Independent honours are concerned this campaign.
Driving standards reared it’s head again at this, the seventh meeting of the season, and although no incidents were severe enough to incur TOCA’s new ability to ban drivers, many drivers have expressed disappointment at some of the close-quarter combat on display.
Reflecting on his weekend, Jordan was pleased with qualifying around a circuit usually suited better to rear-wheel drive cars, such as the Subaru Levorg GT and BMW 125i M-Sport that locked out four of the top five grid slots.
“We had good pace on Saturday, I was really happy with the set up and our qualifying performance.” commented Jordan.
“Getting P6 and being the second placed front wheel drive car was a good result. Unfortunately it just didn’t come our way in the races – sometimes things open up and go in your favour but we’re just not getting the rub of the luck at the minute.”
Despite his frustrations, Jordan was keen to look pragmatically at the results and was pleased to extend his advantage at the top of the Independent standings with nine races left to run.
“We’ve had good race pace all weekend so it’s frustrating to not come away with anything but we have managed to get 3 points finishes and still managed to open up the Independents’ lead which is good. A weekend to forget really.”
The championship heads next to Rockingham Motor Speedway in a fortnight [27th-28th August] with Jordan still theoretically in contention for the main title. At the very least, it’s difficult to see the battle for Independent honours turning into anything but an internal Motorbase duel when the series arrives at Brands Hatch in October.