The Pirtek Racing team took a superb maiden win Sunday in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) at the Croft Circuit in Yorkshire. The team, who are in their debut season of the BTCC, started the race from pole position and took a dominant win after driver Andrew Jordan, led from lights to flag.
The opening race of the day saw the team score their first of three point’s finishes with a tenth place. Race two netted the team a seventh place, which was followed with an outright victory in the final race, as well as the Independent Constructor’s trophy. The team left the Yorkshire Circuit with a great haul of 21 points from the day’s racing.
Starting from the dirty side of the track in race one, Jordan made a good start but lost out to the rear wheel drive BMW of Mat Jackson into the first corner. Jordan spent the subsequent laps chasing down the BMW before a good exit out of the last hairpin onto the start/finish straight gave him a run up the inside of turn one. After brief contact Jordan took the place from Jackson and was back within the top ten. Jordan then closed in on the Ford Focus of Tom Onslow-Cole, who defended his position well and backed Jordan up to Jackson. As the cars came round the final corner Jackson moved up the inside and just pipped past Jordan to take the place on the run for the line.
With the finishing positions forming the grid for race two, Jordan once again lined up alongside the fast starting BMW’s in tenth. Keeping the BMW behind him off the line, Jordan made progress into the first chicane before having to take evasive action from the cars in front. Jordan moved back up after passing Tom Boardman and started a race-long battle defending from Alex MacDowall in the Chevrolet. As the flag fell Jordan crossed the line in a strong seventh place scoring four more valuable championship points.
The grid for the final race of the day is determined by a draw which reverses part of the top ten. Lady luck shined on the Pirtek car and the draw reversed the top seven, giving Jordan pole for the final race of the day. Making an excellent getaway Jordan pulled out a three second gap on the first lap alone, as those behind jostled for position. From then on Jordan was able to control his pace and pull out a margin over nearest rival Onslow-Cole. As the flag fell Jordan took his maiden victory eight seconds ahead of the pack. The win was also the first for the new TOCA turbo powered engine, as well as the first victory for Pirtek Racing in the BTCC.
Jordan commented after the weekend, “We had a lot of understeer in the car in the first two races which made it difficult to get on terms with some of the cars around us, after race two we found one of our dampers was damaged which when we changed it, just transformed the car. Then with the reverse grid pole we were optimistic we could achieve a good result in race three.
“In some ways it was probably one of the easiest races I’ve done in the BTCC, but at the same time it was tough because we knew what was at stake. My dad (Mike) was on the radio to me ensuring we pegged the gap back to Onslow-Cole and I was able to easily keep a steady pace.
“The car felt mega throughout and the engine was on form, the lads in the team as always did a brilliant job and I can’t thank them enough for their efforts. We’ve had some tough races but we always said when our luck changed we’d have our day and this is such an amazing feeling. I want to thank everyone who has backed us this season, especially Pirtek, they’ve been so supportive and it’s fantastic they’ve achieved their first win after only five rounds in the BTCC.”
The BTCC now takes its six week summer break and returns on the 8th August at Snetterton in Norfolk.
