Five top ten finishes for Jordans

Five top ten finishes for Jordans at BrandsAndrew and Mike Jordan scored no less than five top 10 finishes at Brands Hatch on Sunday (21 September) during the final three rounds of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.On the last day of the 2008 BTCC season, the John Guest Racing Honda Integras had a great day as the BTCC played to another packed crowd as well as live TV cameras. A pair of seventh places for Andrew topped the results, but with Mike taking two tenth places, the father and son crew ended the season right in thick of the action."We've had a really good day," said Mike as the season wrapped up. "My car was fantastic all weekend and I really, really enjoyed my racing today. A lot of the time we were the fastest front-wheel drive car out there; it was mega!"The weekend didn’t start so well for Mike, however, with a crown wheel problem stopping him early in qualifying. That meant starting from the tail of the grid for the opening race, but he tigered through to 12th and then backed that up with tenth place in both races two and three. "Each time I tried to go forward a bit and in the last race I had a good tussle with Giovanardi," said Mike.Andrew, meanwhile, qualified 14th and took tenth in race one and then seventh in race two. "To get seventh in the second race having started from 14th on the grid for race one; I thought that was good," he said. The reverse grid draw gave him second place on the grid for the final race, but Andrew didn’t get the best of starts and was in fourth place on the opening lap when a long safety car period started."Before the safety car I was just breaking the back of Rob Collard, but after the safety car his car really came in. He started hassling me and as soon as you start defending, the ones in front go away," said Andrew.Eventually, there was contact and the rear bodywork of Andrew's Honda was pushed on to the tyre. "I had both windows down because the car filled with smoke. Luckily that stopped, but I thought it was going to end in tears!"I was braking really early into Paddock to try and keep tight to the left because Rob was going to get a run on me into Druids. Eventually I got pushed wide at Druids. He had Jackson behind him, so he had to get me out of the way. I had a bit of a lunge at Collard into Graham Hill Bend, but locked up and Mat Jackson got me."Then, in a dramatic end to the race and the season, a huge oil slick at Paddock Hill Bend sent just about every one of the leading cars ploughing through the gravel, including Andrew, who emerged in seventh as the race was halted a couple of laps early."We got some good coverage for our sponsors, which was the main thing. I was a little bit disappointed to end up seventh from second on the grid, but it was one of those really good touring car races. Now I’m looking forward to next year massively. I’m just sorry that the season has ended already, but I’ve enjoyed it a lot and learnt a huge amount."Andrew Jordan is an MSA British Race Elite Driver.

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