The British MSA Dunlop Touring Car Championship descended on a cold and blustery Rockingham Speedway for round 8 of the hotly contested championship. Racetech Seat and Pirtek Racing independent champion Andrew Jordan entered round 8 six points behind triple BTCC champion and veteran of the sport Matt Neal.
Andrew has been an outstanding talent in qualifying of late, once again beating both Factory Hondas to fourth position on the grid with no less than 36kgs of ballast on board. In an interview after qualifying Andrew said “I am really happy with qualifying the team did a great job, I cannot wait for tomorrows races”.
Race one got underway in changeable conditions with the majority of drivers opting for wet tyres. Andrew made a blistering start passing the RWD Audi of Austin and the MG of Tordoff to claim second into the first corner. He then quickly dispatched Plato and began to pull a healthy lead during the remainder of the lap. Carnage ensued behind and as a result the safety car was called onto circuit quashing Andrews lead. On the restart Jordan set about increasing his lead which he held to the flag and took the race victory.
Race two saw Andrew start on pole, the track was drying and with the 45kg of susses ballast from race one he drove well to hang on to eighth. “The track was still damp and looked like it was going to rain again so we compromised with the set-up: we should have gone to a full dry set-up because we struggled as a result,” Andrew said.
The reverse grid always plays a part in driver fortunes for race three, and with the luck shinning on Pirtek’s golden boy Andrew secured pole for race three. He then followed it up with a dominate lights to flag victory; “Sam Tordoff was looking really racey at the start, but I could tell he was using his tyres a lot and it would only be a matter of time before he’d start dropping back,” said Andrew.
The impressive points haul now means the Andrew leads the championship by 30 points into the final two rounds. “To go into the weekend six points behind and come out 30 points ahead: it doesn’t get much better than that,” said an elated Andrew. Six races now sit between the 24 year old contender and his title dreams; the tension heightens as four former champions chase Andrew in the standings, all with a mathematical chance to win.
The BTCC has never been more exciting, it is still all to play for in the title hunt as the championship heads to Silverstone for round 9.