Championship leader Andrew Jordan expects the second British Touring Car Championship event of the season to be a tougher encounter than the first weekend of racing three weeks ago.
Jordan heads to Donington Park – his home circuit – with a two-point lead in the championship over Honda’s Matt Neal, with Colin Turkington a point further back, after taking pole and winning the opening two races of the season at Brands Hatch at the end of March.
But that success brings the reigning champion some difficulty coming into this weekend, as the Pirtek Racing driver will have to qualifying and start race one on the series’ maximum ballast of 45 kilograms.
And with the strength of the BTCC grid this year, Jordan expects it to be a much more difficult task to compete right at the sharp end carrying extra weight.
“We go to Donington with full weight and I think that’s going to make more of a difference this year for qualifying because there are more people up at the front of the pack,” said the 24-year-old. “We’ll try and qualify as well as we can with the weight but to get another pole will be very difficult.”
Despite his concerns, Donington was the scene of Jordan’s first of six victories in the 2013 season as he flew to the championship title, and he insisted that the consistency he displayed during the previous campaign will need to be replicated if he is to defend the trophy.
“We need to be in championship mode all the time now: consistency will win this championship.
“It’s not going to be about the number of race wins, it will be about who scores the most consistent points through the season and that’s what we’ll try and do.”