Andrew Jordan secured his first Pole Position of the 2012 campaign ahead of round seven of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton, but that was to be the highlight of the weekend.
Jordan finished the session eight tenths faster than the MG of Jason Plato and a second clear of the rest of the field, despite lapping the greasy circuit on slick tyres.
“Qualifying was really good,” explained Jordan. “I was on slicks and it was still greasy, but we were under last year’s pole time, which surprised me, it was a good lap.”
Round seven saw the race get underway in awful conditions and after making a good start, Jordan hit standing water heading into the first corner and ended up in the barrier.
“I hit some standing water and the car slid a bit. There was a slight touch with Plato at the first corner and that just sent me round and into the wall. It damaged the rear suspension and also did some damage at the front,” said Jordan about the race ending incident.
The team got the #77 NGTC Honda Civic repaired in time for the second race of the day and Jordan fought his way up the order to finish tenth, just missing out on the grid reversal for the final race.
“We just got the car done in time, but it was still not quite spot on. I came from the back of the grid to tenth,” added Jordan. “It was important to get a finish so I bided my time. I nearly got ninth place at the flag and then they drew position nine out of the hat for pole in the grid draw race three. So I had to start tenth on the grid for race three.”
With the weather and track conditions, the choice of tyres was a tricky selection ahead of the final race of the day – Jordan opted to stay on wets after the warm up lap and he secured a top five finish.
“It was nearly dry enough for slicks, but it rained again on the warming up lap so we stayed with wets. I got up to fifth but the handling still wasn’t quite right, so we wonder if there is still something from the accident in race one,” concluded Jordan, who sits sixth in the overall drivers’ Championship and second in the Independents.
Team-mate Jeff Smith had a testing weekend as well, having started the opening race at the back of the field but he worked his way up the order to secure a ninth place finish in the final race of the day.