Ollie Jackson remained upbeat despite a difficult homecoming to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, with the AmDtuning.com driver taking a highest finish of 22nd, but no points, from the first three rounds at Brands Hatch.
Jackson was forced to head for the pit lane with a stub axle failure in the opening round, but contact with Hunter Abbott’s Chevrolet Cruze on pit entry worsened the damage to the stricken Audi S3 and he was forced to retire.
The following two rounds saw Jackson take his first two finishes of the season, in 23rd and 22nd places respectively, and without problems with his Dunlop soft tyres and traffic around the tight and short Indy circuit he may well have been higher.
“Bad luck seemed to follow us today, which was unfortunate as I think we showed glimpses of the potential that we have in the car,” commented Jackson.
“We were putting in a really competitive performance in the opening race of the day and there is no doubt that we were on to start the season with some points before the problem with the car. It was just unfortunate that as I went to enter the pits, someone else tried to make a move up the inside.
“The guys did a great job to repair the car for race two but Brands Hatch is a circuit where track position is key and it was always going to be difficult in races two and three. We had a bit of an issue on the soft tyre that affected race two and then race three it was a case of just doing what we could in the middle of the pack.
“Although points would have been nice, there is plenty we can take away from the weekend.”
The second meeting of the season takes place at Donington Park across the weekend of 16th-17th April.