Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan was the star of the weekend in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton (3/4 May) with pole position, a win, a second and a fourth place to extend his overall championship lead to eight points after some epic BTCC racing in front of a big Bank Holiday crowd.Andrew and the Pirtek-liveried Honda Civic set the standard from the very start at what it widely regarded as the toughest track on the schedule. Despite carrying 36kg of success ballast as joint championship leader, Andrew set a stunning pace in qualifying to take pole by just under two-tenths of a second from works Honda drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden. "I was hanging on to it out there,” he admitted. “I didn’t think it was the perfect lap but it was enough, which is great. It’s our third pole in a row here but I’m yet to win a race so it’d be good to finally convert one into a victory,” he added. His words on Saturday afternoon proved prophetic as in the opening race on Sunday he drove a stunning race to take a very convincing victory.“It’s a big relief: I was pleased to get my first Thruxton win out of the way,” he said after winning the first race. “I had to be very defensive on the first lap and we were very, very cautious on the tyres,” he said after losing victory a year earlier with a late-race puncture. He held off intense pressure from Mat Jackson over the early laps and then controlled the race superbly from the front.In the second race, Andrew led initially but eventually dropped to second as Shedden forged ahead. “We went too far with the set-up and it was too much of a handful even for me to hang on to out the back of the circuit,” he said. “It was hard work as Gordon was about 20kg lighter than we were. I thought it would be hard work to keep him behind. I gave it a go, but it was just a bit too loose and he got a run on me through Church. When the car isn’t quite there to win you need to accept that and get a good second place.”The reverse grid draw for race three left Andrew starting ninth on the grid but he was instantly on the attack through some fierce BTCC battling. He was up to sixth on the first lap and then tigered up to fourth to challenge Fabrizio Giovanardi for third over the closing laps. “I was quite relieved in the last race: it was an intense race,” he said. “I had a good hard race with Rob Collard. I was constantly looking forward but had to watch my mirrors for Shedden. It was a classic touring car race and it is so hard to stay out of trouble in races like that. I was hoping for a couple more laps with Fabrizio as I could see he was struggling with his tyres. To come through from ninth to fourth was a really good result for us.”