Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing will be on home ground for the next instalment of the all-action roller-coaster that is the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship when the focus switches to the East Midlands track of Donington Park over the weekend of 16/17 April.
For Lichfield-based Andrew, Donington is one of his favourite tracks and he heads to the famous track on the back of showing absolute front-running pace in the season opening meeting at Brands Hatch. Although two punctures in Kent wrecked his chances of an overall podium and even a race win, Andrew knows how good the Pirtek Racing package is, and he is determined to capitalise on that potential at Donington.
Racing alongside the 21-year old in the Pirtek Racing team is BTCC newcomer Jeff Smith in another Vauxhall Vectra and Jeff’s tremendous start at Brands Hatch suggests that he will be a regular top 10 contender in his learning season in the championship.
Andrew reckons the combination of the Vectra and the ‘Next Generation Touring Car’ (NGTC) turbo engine will make a formidable combination at Donington Park. “I think it will be one of our stronger circuits. We ran well there last year and the new engine is going really well so I think Donington will be good for us,” he said. “It’s good to have the Donington weekend at the start of the season and Donington is very local for the team so it will be good to be racing there. It is a challenging track and it’s pretty exciting down the Craner Curves on the early laps when you are just hanging on to the car!”
Donington Park in Leicestershire is one of the most popular tracks on the BTCC schedule and usually delivers bags of exciting racing. It features some truly challenging corners as well as significant gradient changes. The biggest challenge for drivers is the flat out plunge down the sweeping Craner C urves into the Old Hairpin, while the approach to the Esses represents a great overtaking opportunity.
After qualifying on Saturday at 15.25, the first of three BTCC races will be 11.35 on Sunday, with race two at 14.25 and race three at 17.15. All three races will be broadcast live on ITV4 in a programme starting at 11.00. Qualifying will be broadcast live at itv.com and live results from the weekend will be available at tsl-timing.com
