Ollie Jackson and the AmDTuning.com team secured a brace of points finishes during the fifth round of the 2012 British Touring Car Championship at Croft.
Having secured points finishes in the previous six races at Thruxton and Oulton Park, Jackson was able to make it eight point’s finishes on the trot in the opening two races in North Yorkshire before an unfortunate retirement in the final race before the summer break – a move which later brought him some points on his competition licence.
“It’s been a competitive weekend on track and Ollie has driven well,” said Team boss Shaun Hollamby. “He also got a few points on his licence for some incidents today, so he can now call himself a proper BTCC driver!”
Qualifying saw Jackson set the 20th fastest time in the #48 Volkswagen Golf and at the start of the opening race of the weekend, he avoided the start line melee to move into 13th position and as the race drew to a close, he was battling with Tony Gilham over 11th position, which he gained on the final lap.
Lining up 11th for the second race, Jackson set his fastest lap of the weekend as he brought the car home 15th overall and for his eighth points finish on the trot.
The final race before the summer break saw Jackson running strongly in a race truncated by two Safety Car periods but two laps from the end, he locked his breaks heading into Tower and collided with Chris James in the Vauxhall Vectra.
Jackson saw his race end on the spot and with it, his run of consecutive points finishes. He goes into the summer break 18th overall in the drivers’ Championship and 14th in the Independents.
“Aside from a few incidents, I think I’ve driven well this weekend and have got a lot from the car,” explained Jackson.
“We didn’t quite have the pace to push into the top ten but we knew coming into the weekend how competitive the series is and how tough it would be. My best lap was quicker than the car has gone round here before which is good and we’ve got more confidence in making changes. We know what we now need to work on during the summer break and I’m looking forward to Snetterton.”
The double points score from Croft means that the team has scored points in 10 of the 15 races run to date in the 2012 Championship and for Hollamby; the weekend has been a productive one.
“It’s been a solid weekend and we’ve probably been able to collect more useful data from this weekend than at any other meeting so far this year,” he said. “We’ll now spend time looking over that data back at base and there are some things we plan to look at over the seven-week break. It was disappointing to end with a DNF but we got two more points finishes to add to our tally and can go into the summer break optimistic about the rest of the year,” concluded Hollamby.