Andrew Jordan secured his second victory of the 2013 British Touring Car Championship in the final race of the day at Oulton Park, after a brace of top 5 finishes in the first two races.
Having qualified fifth fastest ahead of round 10, with 36kgs success ballast on board for lying second in the Championship arriving in Cheshire, Jordan secured a trio of top five finishes.
“I think we should have been able to qualify third, but we didn’t quite get it all together,” he admitted after qualifying.
Starting fifth for the opening race, Jordan brought the #77 Pirtek Racing Honda Civic home fourth despite a problem with the exhaust and he backed that up with a fifth place finish in race 2.
“After race two I didn’t think the day was going too well, with a fourth and a fifth and the car’s handling wasn’t where we wanted it,” he admitted.
The final race of the weekend saw a change in fortune as Jordan survived the on track carnage to work his way up from 6th on the grid to take his second victory of the season, and was part of a Pirtek 1-2 for a few laps as team-mate Jeff Smith led the way.
With his race 3 win, he closed to within 4 points of Championship leader Matt Neal, having started the day 13 points behind.
“I had to bide my time to some extent in the first few laps because it was all kicking off: I thought maybe a third was on the cards,” explained Jordan.
“I had to make quick progress and when I got on to someone I had to get buy them and keep the pace going. The car was really, really good and it was a shame we couldn’t get a one-two. Unfortunately Jeff lost the back into Knickerbrook and it went round. That was a great shame for him.”
His Cheshire results mean that Jordan heads to Croft within 4 points of the Championship lead, having been the joint top points scorer in the three races at Oulton Park.
“From our point of view, Jason Plato and Gordon Shedden had bad ones in that last race, so it has been a good day,” added Jordan.
“We’ve come out of it joint top points scorer and we’re right up there in the championship. I said before the first race that if we could come away with three top sixes, it would be okay, with the weight we had on. To get a win was a nice surprise. We’ve closed the gap to Matt Neal from 13 points to four!” he concluded.