Mat Jackson returned to ‘the right end of the grid’ in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park, with the Motorbase Performance driver securing his best race one start of the season.
Having been hovering in and out of the top ten in the day’s wet practice sessions, Jackson put in his best showing in qualifying, taking seventh on the grid and putting his Ford Focus ahead of the Maximum Motorsport variant of Josh Cook.
Jackson has been known to struggle for pace in qualifying, and he admitted after the session that putting in such a strong effort around Oulton Park, where passing is challenging, was an important factor.
“It’s a hard place to overtake and the race gets pretty static, so being at the right end in qualifying is key,” said Jackson to TouringCars.Net.
“We’ve got a lot of rear-wheel drive cars around us. I think the left-hand side of the grid in front of us are all rear-wheel drive, which are going to go well around here and we’re at the right end, so that’s promising.
“It was a good qualifying session, so overall I’m pretty happy and we’re at the right end of the grid for the start tomorrow.”
Jackson added that the recent re-evaluation by TOCA of the Ford’s Mountune engine, which took place following the previous round at Thruxton, has already had a positive effect at Oulton Park.
“The championship will re-evaluate [the performance] after every three races and that’s what they’ve done. For sure it’s helped – we’ve been outside the top twenty on a number of occasions.
“For a car that won five races last year to not being anywhere near [the front], clearly there’s something amiss. I haven’t forgotten how to drive and the team haven’t forgotten how to set one up, so clearly there was something amiss and I believe we’re back in a window that’s more acceptable.”
The 35-year-old says he is targeting a first win of the season on Sunday as he tries to reduce the 94-point deficit that he has to the championship lead.
“We need big points as the championship hasn’t gone our way. It’s been a bit of a disaster to-date, but now we’re in the mix in qualifying. I think we’ve got to target that win.
“We need big points; you’ve only got to look at the championship points and we’re a long way out, so we need to hit big, and that’s what we’ve got to do.”