Three top four finishes, including a return to the overall podium, made it a very good weekend for Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing at the Croft circuit in North Yorkshire (23/24 June) during rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the 2012 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.
After running strongly in qualifying to take third place behind the Honda Civics of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal, Andrew was super-consistent across the three races to take two fourth places and then finish with a third place in the final race, which was full of typical BTCC action and drama. The result leaves Andrew lying equal fourth in the overall BTCC points with Rob Collard and leading the Independents Trophy.
“After qualifying we found a problem with the diff, and on full throttle the car was really hard work,” said Andrew. “But even with that we were only a tenth off pole, so the potential was there for pole.” On Sunday, Andrew slotted into second place in the opening race, running between Shedden and Neal. But contact from Neal was soon to leave him struggling. “Matt had a bit of a lunge at the hairpin and hit me quite hard, which bent the tracking and closed the exhaust down so I had no straight-line speed,” said Andrew who hung on as well as he could to salvage fourth place.
Into race two of the day, he was initially edged back to sixth off the grid by two of the typically fast-starting rear-wheel drive cars. “A couple of the rear-wheel drive cars got me off the start, but I got back up to third and went after the Hondas. The car felt really, really good but then it dropped off massively and I think it was a problem with the diff again.” Despite the handling problem, Andrew again finished fourth to earn another good haul of points.
The third and final race was frenetic from the start, with two early safety car periods and some incredibly hard-fought racing. “The third race was just manic: probably one of the most fraught races I’ve ever been in,” said Andrew. “There was a lot going on, but I managed to keep my nose clean and went from seventh to third. It was a good hard race and it was good to come away with at least one podium.”
Andrew and the team now have a mid-season break until the BTCC action resumes at Snetterton (11/12 August) and they have plans to use the break to make the Pirtek Honda ever faster!
