BMW was left satisfied with its qualifying performance at Donington Park despite carrying a cumulative 96 kilograms of success ballast.
Both Rob Collard and Andrew Jordan were able to post solid midfield times to start the first race today from 13th and 14th.
A water leak on team-mate Colin Turkington’s BMW 125i M Sport curtailed his running earlier and brought out the red flags, but regardless he lines up as the most competitive, ballast-free car in 10th.
Both Collard and Jordan are likely to shed their weight penalties for the second contest, ensuring they stand a good chance of progressing and taking strong results later in the weekend.
“I’m pretty happy with my qualifying time, especially with 57kg of success ballast on board,” said Jordan “But I’m quite surprised that time has left me in 14th today. I’m playing the long game this year, so there are always going to be tracks that don’t suit your car as well as others, but the BMW is an excellent race car and I’m sure we can go forwards tomorrow and score useful points.”
“If you’d told me yesterday that I’d qualify in the time I set, I’d have been happy, because with 39kg of ballast, it’s about the limit of what was possible today,” agreed Collard
“I’m surprised to be 13th, but when you consider that only three of the top-10 cars in qualifying have any ballast, you realise just how mixed-up the grid can be for a BTCC event. In race conditions, I’m confident we’ll have one of the best cars out there.” he continued.
Turkington also admitted he felt he could have gleaned more from qualifying without the water leak, but underlined his confidence in WSR to prepare a car in which he can fight to recover the weekend.
“The BMW has run well today and I’m sure I could have been inside the top-10 if I’d been running at the end. Unfortunately, I had a water leak towards the end of the session, which ended our running. From 10th, we certainly have our work cut out to score big points, but the combination of WSR and BMW is very strong and if anyone can do it, we can.” said Turkington.