Andrew Jordan was frustrated to miss out on pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill, with the BMW Pirtek Racing driver ending up in third on the grid for race one.
Jordan had earlier topped second practice in his BMW, putting him as one of the favourites for pole position heading into qualifying at a circuit which has typically suited rear-wheel drive cars.
But in the end Jordan could only manage third, missing out on pole to Honda’s Dan Cammish and also being beaten to the best BMW time by Team Parker Racing’s Stephen Jelley.
“I’m disappointed as I think if you look at the ideals then we should have had pole, but it’s the same session for everyone,” said Jordan to TouringCars.Net. “We just caught the yellow flags at a bad time in sector two, but that’s the way it goes.
“The two in front did a better job than us in the sessions, so there’s no excuses and we’re in a strong position for the races from there.”
Having missed out on the top ten at Rockingham and dropped to ninth in the drivers’ championship standings as a result, 59 points adrift of points leader and fellow BMW racer Colin Turkington, Jordan is keen to have three clean races in Scotland as he looks to secure his first win of the season.
“The position I’m in is that I need to attack and score big, so we’ll take risks where needed to try and make progress. Obviously, Colin and Tom [Ingram] have a different kind of mentality from that.
“I need to try and keep my nose clean, but I need to attack as well as it’s not just a case of driving around to score points.
“We’ve got a car capable of winning and certainly challenging for a podium in the dry. We don’t quite know where we’ll be in the wet, but I think we’ll be strong.
“I’ll take risks where I need to and see where we get to. It’s been a good day’s work but I’m a little bit frustrated.”
With race day set to be affected by rain all day, Jordan added that carrying success ballast is less likely to be as much of a disadvantage in the slippery conditions.
“The weight has less of an effect in the wet because you haven’t got the grip for the acceleration. The weight will probably lessen the effect of the guys carrying the big weight.
“We’ve actually had it before in the wet that the weight actually helps to calm the car down a little bit. It looks like it’s going to be pretty wet from the forecast. We want it to be consistently wet throughout the day, rather than it being damp and dry, as that would be easier.”