Mat Jackson saw a possible victory at Brands Hatch slip from his grasp in the third race of the day at Brands Hatch, having recovered from a disappointing qualifying session where he finished outside the top ten. He had seen his qualifying session affected by slower cars on the tight Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
“Same for everyone I suppose and the art is being on track when it’s clear – I’m not saying pole position was on but we should have been inside the 6,” admitted Jackson.
Having worked his way into the top ten in the opening race with a seventh placed finish, Jackson brought his Redstone Racing Ford Focus home fourth in round two, which left him fifth on the grid for the third race, after the top eight drivers were reversed.
Having made his way into second off the line, Jackson was chasing down the race leader before a mistake at Paddock Hill Bend saw him damage the front of the #4 Ford Focus and dump all of the cars oil over the circuit.
“Hands up – my mistake,” explains the Henley-in-Arden based racer. “I ran wide off the track which damaged the underneath of my car and that was it, game over. I’m gutted as I was closing in on the leader fast and the race win was definitely on.
“Even more annoying is the fact we’d made a changed the car’s set-up for that race and I could instantly feel it come alive – to go out so early on meant we never got to see what it could do over a full race distance.”
Next up for Jackson and the Redstone Racing team is a trip to Jackson’s local circuit of Donington Park. It was at Donington Park last year where Jackson took his first win of the 2011 campaign and the first win for the team since their switch to the Ford Focus ST’s from the BMW 320si.
He arrives there eighth in the Championship and looking to make up ground on the Championship leaders.
“If the car can come out of the blocks feeling like it did in race 3 at Brands Hatch then I’ll be really pleased,” concluded Jackson.
“We’ve got our work cut out keeping up with the new NGTC-spec cars but we’ve still got a very strong team-driver-car combination with great sponsors and team spirit. I won at Donington last year and it’d be great to open my 2012 account there as well.”