Mat Jackson is aiming to put a frustrating weekend at Oulton Park behind him as he looks to end the first half of the 2016 British Touring Car Championship campaign on a high.
The Motorbase Performance driver was only able to break into the top ten on one occasion during the championships annual visit to the 2.2 mile Cheshire circuit, with 10th in race two as good as the weekend got for the former series runner-up.
Regardless, Motorbase heads into the fifth meeting of the season leading the Independent Teams championship by a healthy advantage of 49 points from single-car entry, WIX Racing.
A win apiece for Jackson and team-mate Andrew Jordan at Thruxton had thrown the duo into the mix for the Drivers title, but with neither placing higher than 8th at Oulton, the two now have a 37 (Jordan) and 40 (Jackson) point deficit to standings leader Sam Tordoff to close.
With rear-wheel drive cars notoriously strong at Croft, the two Ford Focus ST models will have their work cut out, but Jackson insists the team heads north to Yorkshire in good stead as they set about banishing an uncharacteristically off weekend in Cheshire to the history books.
“We’re in a good place heading into the last round before the summer break leading the Independent Teams championship but the main title is the one that everyone wants!” he explained.
“Oulton Park was a bit of the let-down after such a strong weekend at Thruxton so we need to have another winning weekend at Croft to keep the pressure on.”
He also pointed to past successes at Croft for encouragement and also alluded to the need to consistently score points across the 30-race calendar in order to have a realistic chance at challenging for the crown come finals day at Brands Hatch in October.
“Croft has been good to us in the past and we’ve enjoyed some great results there over the years in the Focus so hopefully we can look forward to more of the same. The BTCC is all about consistency; you need to stay out of trouble, finish every race and just keep banking the points so that’s our plan!”
With both Motorbase cars yet to retire from a single round this season, consistency is certainly a strong suit of David Bartrum’s Kent-based outfit, but scoring stronger points than a fortnight ago is going to be crucial if Motorbase are to hit the summer sunshine without too much damage to their title credentials.