Motorbase Performance are confident they can continue their winning form heading into the third Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting of the season at Thruxton this weekend, after Mat Jackson opened the team’s account for the season with a victory last time out at Donington Park.
A strong start to the campaign sees Dave Bartrum’s outfit head to the notoriously challenging 2.4 mile Hampshire venue this weekend at the head of the Independent Teams Standings, with Jackson and his team-mate, 2013 champion Andrew Jordan, also making the journey to the south-west sitting in 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Independent Drivers Standings.
Donington Park was a happy hunting ground for the Ford Focus ST, as Jackson dovetailed a win in the first contest with the second step of the podium in race two. He finished the weekend with a disappointing 14th in race three, but the triple-header at the East Midlands circuit was far more frustrating for Jordan.
A poor qualifying result left him with a set of results not dissimilar to last year’s disappointing campaign with MG Triple Eight Racing, though he showed gradual improvement to move from a lowest position of 14th to as high as 10th throughout the weekend. Jordan is something of a specialist at Thruxton, and is a very safe bet to score at least a podium finish this weekend.
Whilst team manager, Oly Collins, admitted it is set to be another closely contested weekend in the UK’s premier tin-top series, he also pointed to the productivity of the Kent outfit during their recent break from running.
“After collecting our first win at Donington we’re going to Thruxton with more confidence;” he explained.
“Thruxton is a circuit that the drivers always look forward to. Mat and Andrew as well as us as a team have enjoyed some good times there so hopefully that will continue this year. It’s a unique circuit which throws up a challenge to the engineers and drivers.”
“We’ve had a bit of a break from racing which has been used productively back at base and out testing;” added Collins. “There’s always a lot of work going on behind the scenes to help the team achieve the best results. Looking at the times from the first two events I’m sure it will be another close weekend.”
Jackson also hailed the unpredictability of the venue, but is more concerned with scoring a consistent stream of points finishes as the series progresses as opposed to going for glory, though he concedes a repeat of Motorbase’s double podium in 2014 at Thruxton would be a nice reward.
“Thruxton should be a good weekend for us off the back of a strong weekend at Donington Park. It’s always nice to get that first win of the season under your belt but it’s a long Championship and we need to make sure we carry that momentum forward and keep banking the points.
“Thruxton’s unique – it’s a fantastic circuit to race on and it always has the knack of throwing a few curve balls into the mix in terms of results,”
“We’ve had some great wins and podiums here in the past, including a double podium last time we were there in 2014 and it would be mega to repeat that but based on the times we’ve seen so far, I think it’s going to be really close.”
This weekend’s triple-header of races gets underway at 12:12, 14:32 and 17:17 respectively, and is broadcast live on ITV4 and in HD, with live text commentary available via TouringCars.net