Mat Jackson and his Motorbase Performance team are confident of continuing their title challenge in this weekend’s British Touring Car Championship races at Oulton Park.
Jackson is currently fourth overall in the drivers’ championship standings, thanks to taking another fin in the final race of the day last time out at Thruxton to take his season tally to two.
The win takes Jackson to within 11 points of the overall championship lead, and the 34-year-old remains confident of being able to continue his title push in Cheshire, despite taking just two of his 27 BTCC wins at the track.
“Off the back of our successful weekend at Thruxton I think everybody is rightly filled with confidence at Motorbase,” said Jackson, who will carry 48 kg of ballast into qualifying and race one. “It’s great to be leading the Independents’ championship at this point in the season, but our eyes are on the overall title – that’s the one we want – and that’s what we’re aiming for. With the results we’ve had so far this season, there’s no reason at all why we can’t achieve it.
“Oulton’s a great place to race at, one of my favourites. It’s a proper circuit which breaks the mould and I’m really looking forward to getting back out there again this weekend and taking the fight to the Hondas and BMWs.”
Motorbase Performance Team Manager Oly Collins added that he expects a strong challenge from the Team Dynamics and WSR squads at the Cheshire circuit.
“We’ve had a small break since our last race meeting to evaluate our performances so far and the guys have been busy back at base as usual;” said Collins. “We haven’t been sitting still which will no doubt be the case for all of our competitors but hopefully we’ll be able to carry the momentum from our double winning race weekend at Thruxton to Oulton Park.
“Both Mat and Andrew [Jordan] are carrying weight into the weekend so we’ll have to see what effect that has for qualifying and race one.
“Clearly the BMWs and Hondas are going to be strong and will be a real threat along with Ingram and Morgan as they have been so far this season. It will also be interesting to see how the Suburu’s perform now that they’ve managed to get some testing it but we’re confident we will be strongly in the mix.
“Oulton Park is a fantastic circuit; one of the best on the calendar which I’m sure will offer the same close racing we’ve seen in the opening rounds.”