Redstone Racing head into the seven week summer break looking for a change in fortunes after a difficult weekend during the fifth weekend of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship.
Looking to bounce back after a tough weekend at Oulton Park was Mat Jackson; his weekend was compromised with an engine issue which restricted him to an eighth place finish in race one and a twelfth place finish in race three.
The team had to swap the Mountune engine after the first race but this ruled the #4 Ford Focus driver out of round 14 – he joined the track for the final lap to check that the engine was installed correctly.
“It has been a frustrating weekend but it’s just a case of breathe in, move on,” explained a frustrated Jackson, who remains sixth in the outright drivers’ Championship. “We struggled to match the NGTC cars as they’ve got so much grip at this circuit, which really hurt us from the outset. The problem we had in race one gave us no option but to change the engine for race two. Then going into race three at the back of the grid was always going to be a nightmare as it’s no holds barred racing; nobody has anything to lose.”
Aron Smith also had another weekend to forget in North Yorkshire after he was restricted to a single points finish with a top ten finish in the opening race. A suspension issue forced the #5 Redstone Racing driver to retire from seventh in round 14 while a steering issue forced him to retire from round 15.
“It’s such a disappointment,” added Irishman Smith, who is 15th in the Championship. “I got up to eighth in race one but then the puncture made it virtually impossible to keep the car on track. We made some really good set-up changes for race two and the car felt good before we had some technical problems, then we had more issues in race three. I’m gutted for myself and the team, but that’s life.”
After securing his best result to date in the BTCC last time out at Oulton Park, Liam Griffin arrived at Croft looking for a change in luck. He secured a brace of top 15 finishes in the opening two races before seeing his third race finish heavily in the tyre wall at Tower.
Griffin is also unhappy with the amount of contact and damage in the BTCC right now, he was running 14th before being taken out by Lea Wood.
“I’ve been waiting for my luck to change and it just hasn’t,” concluded an equally frustrated Griffin. “There’s so much contact now in the BTCC and its resulting in drivers not getting the results they deserve. It’s very frustrating that we’re spending a lot of time, effort and money on going racing and have nothing to show for it.”
Snetterton in Norfolk is the venue for round six of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship in seven weekend’s time, over the 11/12 August.