The AmDTuning.com team picked up two more points finishes as the 2012 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season reached the half-way point at Croft.The long-trip to the North East saw the West Thurrock-based team pick up a best finish of eleventh from the latest three races of the 2012 campaign, although an incident on track in the final race of the weekend meant Attleborough-racer Ollie Jackson was unable to match the three points finishes he secured in the previous two meetings at Thruxton and Oulton Park.Ollie qualified in 20th place at the wheel of his turbo-powered Volkswagen Golf and avoided a three-car clash ahead at the start of race one to move up to 13th place on the run to Clervaux. After a heated battle in the midfield, Ollie went into the final laps dicing for eleventh place with the Honda of Tony Gilham – with Ollie eventually taking the place on the final lap.A solid run in race two saw Ollie set what would prove to be his fastest race lap of the weekend en-route to another points finish in 15th place but there was to be disappointment in race three when he was forced into retirement.In a race truncated by two Safety Car periods, Ollie was on course to secure his third finish of the weekend until two laps from the finish, when he locked his brakes heading into Tower and collided with the Vauxhall Vectra of Chris James.The resultant damage put Ollie out on the spot and ended his run of eight successive points finishes, with him heading into the summer break 18th in the overall championship standings and 14th amongst the Independents’.“Aside from a few incidents, I think I’ve driven well this weekend and have got a lot from the car,” he said. “We didn’t quite have the pace to push into the top ten but we knew coming into the weekend how competitive the series is and how tough it would be. My best lap was quicker than the car has gone round here before which is good and we’ve got more confidence in making changes. We know what we now need to work on during the summer break and I’m looking forward to Snetterton.”Team boss Shaun Hollamby insisted it had been a productive weekend for the AmDTuning.com squad as it continues to work on improving the Golf - with the double score meaning it has now secured points in ten of the 15 races run so far this season.“It’s been a solid weekend and we’ve probably been able to collect more useful data from this weekend than at any other meeting so far this year,” he said. “We’ll now spend time looking over that data back at base and there are some things we plan to look at over the seven-week break. It was disappointing to end with a DNF but we got two more points finishes to add to our tally and can go into the summer break optimistic about the rest of the year.
“It’s been a competitive weekend on track and Ollie has driven well. He also got a few points on his licence for some incidents today, so he can now call himself a proper BTCC driver!”AmD Tuning.com are supported by AmDtuning.com, Beavis Morgan, Corbeau, Showtrax, LUKE, Milltek, Superpro, SFS, Airtec, Legend Vehicle Specialists, Pipercross and KW.
