Andrew Jordan is anticipating a strong set of results at the penultimate round of the British Touring Car Championship this weekend at Silverstone, with both the 2013 champion and Motorbase Performance set to dominate the Independent categories.
Jordan, who made a return to the podium for the first time since Thruxton during the middle contest at Rockingham, currently leads the Independent standings from team-mate Mat Jackson by seventeen points. With Motorbase having provisionally clinched the Independent Teams standings during the championships first visit to Northamptonshire three weeks ago, the season looks set to feature a strong finish for David Bartrum’s outfit.
Eight drivers arrive at the 1.64 mile National circuit at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix, with a realistic chance of still counting themselves among the championship contenders. With Jordan currently 58 marks adrift of standings leader Sam Tordoff, three strong results will be vital to ensure he remains in mathematical contention heading to Brands Hatch in October.
The fifteen-time race winner praised the base performance of his Ford Focus ST in recent rounds, and believes finding a solid setup for the weekend should prove straightforward.
“I think we should have a strong weekend at Silverstone,” admitted Jordan.
“The car has rolled out bang on the pace at Snetterton, Knockhill and Rockingham so we’ve not needed to reinvent the wheel heading into the weekend.”
With two long straight, four right hand corners and a heavy braking zone into Brooklands characterizing the circuit, Jordan feels whoever gets the best slipstream during the ever-important thirty minute qualifying session on Saturday will stand the best chance of taking pole position.
“Silverstone is challenging in its own way with the racing being so close. It’s never easy to make a gap there and I think qualifying will come down whoever gets the best slipstream,”
Assessing his own chances versus that analysis, Jordan feels the circuit characteristics align well with the strengths of the Ford as a package, and is expecting the quality of racing to be higher than ever this year.
“The circuit suits our chassis really well so I’m sure we’ll be right up at the front in contention and with how wide open the championship is this year, we’ll see some really good racing.”