Sam Tordoff admits he was surprised to be the best of the front-wheel drive runners in the British Touring Car Championship races at Croft, with the Yorkshireman just missing out on the podium in races one and two.
Tordoff scored two fourth place finishes in the first two races – making six finishes just outside the top ten this year for the Leeds racer – before ending the weekend with another top ten in eighth.
Having also qualified in fourth on outright pace on Saturday, as the best of the front-wheel drive cars, the Motorbase Performance driver was pleased to have scored as strongly as he did on a circuit widely regarded as favouring rear-wheel drive machinery.
His results mean that Tordoff moves up to 11th overall in the drivers’ championship standings, moving ahead of BMW’s Rob Collard in the process.
“Overall it was a good weekend,” said Tordoff. “We’re back in the hunt! It’s been great racing at my home circuit, I’ve had lots of friends and family here supporting me and it does make a difference.
“It would have been nice to get onto the podium, but we never really expected to do that at Croft. I’ll keep taking fourth; it’s a good amount of points and not a hideous amount of weight. It’s all a step in the right direction.
“Running the hard tyre in race three was always going to be tricky, particularly with the typical scenario where most people seem to throw caution to the wind.
“There were a few fast people coming through, so overall I think we can be happy with eighth in the last race.
“The car’s been good this weekend. It’s surprised me how good really. This is a RWD domination circuit this weekend and they’ve not dominated this time around.
“We’ve been the most competitive FWD car and been mixing it in the top five in all three races so that’s a pleasant surprise.”
Tordoff is looking forward to the next meeting at Snetterton in one month’s time, where he believes not carrying any success ballast will be beneficial to start a meeting which features a double distance, double points feature in race three.
“I thought it would be a real struggle this weekend, and I’m looking forward to the summer break now.
“We’ll arrive at Snetterton with next to no weight which means hopefully we can qualify well there. With double points on offer for race three as well, you never know, we might be leaving there in a much more favourable position.”