Sam Tordoff was positive after the three British Touring Car Championship races at Oulton Park, where the AmD Tuning driver enjoyed his best weekend results of the season so far.
Tordoff, who had been quickest of all in first practice at the start of the weekend, had qualified in second on Saturday, and started the first race from the front row of the grid.
However the Yorkshireman lost out at the very start and dropped to fifth by the end of the opening lap, where he would stay until the end of the race, just behind team-mate Rory Butcher.
Tordoff followed that result up with another fifth in race two, before being drawn to start from seventh for the reversed grid final race.
In that encounter the Honda driver emerged unscathed from the incident between Matt Neal and Jake Hill ahead of him on lap three, emerging from the melee in fourth position, before going on to cross the line in that position.
However, fourth became third when Hill was handed a post-race penalty for instigating the incident on the third lap, and Tordoff was thus belatedly given his second top three result of the year.
“Two fifths and an Independent win is a great result and then getting a podium in race three a really good way to end the day,” said Tordoff.
“We lucked into a few incidents out on track today, but you have to be there to pick up the chances when they come along.
“We’re still lacking that little something extra. We’re fighting three BMW’s that are in a league of their own at the moment and the factory Hondas are ahead of us so we’re asking for a little bit more, but that’s the extra bit between a win or not.”
Tordoff, who now sits 13th in the overall drivers’ standings, was in positive spirits heading into the mid-summer break, before the racing action resume at Snetterton in just over one months’ time.
“It’s been a positive weekend. We’ve not quite been the fastest, but we’ve scored some good points. It’s nice to have a consistent Saturday and Sunday at last and we can go into the summer break happy.
“Looking ahead we’ve got some strong tracks coming up for us. Jack Goff was on pole in this car at Snetterton the last three times in a row. Knockhill will be good for us. We were on pole at Thruxton and will be going back there and Brett Smith took pole in this car at Brands Hatch so as I look to the second half of the season, it will be much stronger for us.
“We’ll be looking to refine the car at the Snetterton test in a couple of weeks. We’ve learned a bit more this weekend so we’ll be putting that into practice, too.”