Andrew Jordan battled against one of the most famous names in British motorsport as he contested the AVO Ginetta races at Brands Hatch over the weekend (24/25 September).With a 50,000-strong crowd packed in to the Kent track to witness the opening race in the new A1 Grand Prix series, Andrew raced neck and neck with Alistair McRae in the Ginetta race that closed Sunday's racing.McRae, younger brother of former World Rally Champion Colin, was racing the VIP car for the weekend and, like 16-year old Andrew, was competing on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit for the first time.In qualifying on Friday, the Sutton Coldfield teenager qualified seventh fastest in wet and difficult conditions to put himself two places ahead of McRae on the 36-car grid. Although this was Andrew's first experience of racing on the challenging Grand Prix circuit at Brands, his pace was close to that of former Formula 3 race winner Rob Austin and 2005 Ginetta champion Matt Nichol-Jones.In the opening race on Saturday, Andrew ran a strong sixth in the lead pack until just about all of the leading cars were black-flagged for running wide over the kerbs. The action by race officials ruined what had been a first class race and, after a stop-go penalty in the pits, Andrew finished in the middle of the pack.For Sunday's race, Andrew started seventh on the grid. But just as the race was about to start, a heavy rain shower hit the circuit and all of the cars went into the race using slick tyres racing on a wet and slippery track.Despite the conditions, Andrew made a storming start to get up into fourth place and was battling to keep McRae behind. However, Andrew's car was then hit from behind by McRae and pushed wide, dropping two places as a result. McRae then spun later on around the same lap and Andrew got back to fifth. However, over the closing stages McRae – using all his rallying experience in treacherous conditions – battled back ahead and edged Andrew down to an eventual seventh-place finish."It's not been the best results for Andrew, but it was a great learning weekend," said his father Mike. "To out-qualify Alistair McRae in the wet was a great achievement and racing with him in tough conditions taught Andrew a great deal."Andrew Jordan is supported by John Guest, Team Dynamics, Bill Gwynne Rally School and Pirtek.