Mat Jackson secured his first victory of the season during the opening race of the weekend at Donington Park and thought he had doubled up in the final race before being excluded from the results for running too much turbo boost.
Round four of the season saw the Henley-in-Arden based driver line up sixth in his E Spares/Volvo Trucks backed Redstone Racing Ford Focus ST and he was up to third by the end of the opening lap, before moving into the lead with a hard but fair move during the early stages.
He fended off the Honda Yuasa Racing Team duo of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal for the victory – his first in the opening race since Silverstone 2009, where he secured the victory at the wheel of a Chevrolet Lacetti.
Jackson backed up his race one victory with a third place finish in the second race of the day, having led the early stages before the lighter Honda’s caught and passed the Redstone Racing driver.
The third race of the day also saw Jackson spray the Champagne as he staved off the Honda of Shedden and the MG of Jason Plato to become the first double winner of the season – before being excluded from the results.
As a result, Jackson will head to Thruxton sixth in the Championship, having been second for a while after his race three victory.
“Losing the race three win is gutting after such a fantastic performance all weekend by everyone in the team,” explains Jackson. “There was nothing intentional about the infringement but we have to respect the rules even though it’s cost us dear.
“But we have so many positives to take away such as being fastest in first free practice on Saturday, a strong sixth place qualifying result, victory in race one, third in race two, the fastest race lap of anybody and we’ve led all three races. Even had the car’s boost settings been correct in race three I’m still confident I could have held on for the win even though the pressure from behind was relentless. The car felt that good.
“The Thruxton circuit in Hampshire is next up in two weekend’s time – it’s the fastest track we race on and it’s one of my favourites. Whether we can take it to the newer ‘Next Generation’ cars with their slightly bigger tyres I don’t know because it’s all about grip at high speed around there. But we’ve got a very competitive Ford engine in the Focus from our tuner, Mountune, and after Donington everyone’s spirits in the team are up.”