Andrew Jordan was pleased with a return to the podium during the second of last weekends British Touring Car Championship races at Rockingham, with the Pirtek Racing driver claiming the runner-up spot behind Sam Tordoff.
Jordan, who last visited the rostrum at Thruxton in May, has finished all but three of the sixteen races since inside the top ten, but ultimately some bad luck and unfortunate incidents have held the 2013 series winner back in recent meetings, despite the obvious pace of the Ford Focus ST.
An electric start from the fourth row of the grid in race two paved the way for Jordan to claim second, and he completed a strong weekend with two further points finishes in 7th and 12th after a disappointing qualifying amid difficult conditions on Saturday.
The end result sees Jordan remain on the fringes of the title fight with six races to go before the series ends at Brands Hatch in October, although Jordan and Motorbase Performance both maintained their respective advantages at the top of the Independent drivers and teams standings.
Reflecting on the weekend, Jordan admits he gave himself a lot of work to do after qualifying, but enjoyed scything through the field before claiming yet another Independent win, one that gives him a strong seventeen point advantage in the category over team-mate, Mat Jackson.
“We made it hard for ourselves in qualifying on Saturday but to come back from that in race 1 with good pace in the car and enjoyed some good racing with some great overtakes,” he commented.
“To follow that up with a podium in race 2 and an Independent win was really nice. I just wish we hadn’t have made it so hard for ourselves in qualifying but that’s how it goes sometimes. Thankfully we’ve made up for it in the races today.”
Jordan also admitted the final contest proved more difficult with the addition of weight to the car, and with the harder Dunlop rubber on he continued the trend of drivers falling backwards down the field with a drop in performance when running the compound.
“Race 3 was really tough with a fair bit of weight on and running the hard tyre. We got biffed around a bit and knocked out of line which dropped us back. I think if we’d been in clean air we could’ve managed the tyre a bit better but because we had to defend so hard I just couldn’t get back in unfortunately.”
Nevertheless, Jordan was pleased with his weekends work and admitted returning to the podium had been a sweet moment.
“On the whole though I think we managed to rescue a terrible Saturday, coming away with two good results. It was really nice to get back on the podium – it’s been too long and things finally opened up nicely for us in race 1 and 2 and we managed to put our pace to good use.”
The penultimate round of the championship takes place at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix, over the weekend of 17th-18th September 2016.