Sam Tordoff was happy to concede victory to Matt Neal in the second British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Knockhill, with the Team JCT600 with GardX driver and current championship leader happy to minimize the damage to his standings lead.
The 27-year old was also delighted with the performance gains made with the BMW 125i M-Sport after a few setup changes were made between the opening contest, in which Tordoff struggled slightly with 66 kilograms of success ballast on board and dropped to 5th, and the second race that saw him make a spirited comeback.
He spent the majority of the contest engage in a close quarter battle with the Subaru duo of Jason Plato and Colin Turkington, having earlier dispensed with team-mate Jack Goff. Team BMR’s duo attempted to outfox the BMW with some clever tactics from Plato, backing Tordoff up into each overtaking opportunity and allowing Turkington to challenge for second.
Despite losing the position to Turkington, Tordoff rallied once more and fought back, and actually crossed the line in the lead by fractions of a second at one stage amid a drag race down the main straight with Plato, but ultimately he was forced to concede.
As Plato backed Tordoff into Neal, the latter seized control of the contest in the closing stages and romped to victory, with Tordoff relieving his old team-mate of second and settling for the middle step on the rostrum.
Speaking after the race, Tordoff admitted it had been a challenging race to manage, alongside the usual strains of piloting an NGTC machine at the front of the most competitive field in British motorsport.
“It was chaos at times – we were all going for it!” he exclaimed.
“For a lot of it I just didn’t know where to go! We made a few tweaks to the car after race one and it was a different beast.”
“Jason (Plato) started to struggle with his tyres and it gave me the chance. I was right with him until Matt Neal made his move then I followed him through at the hairpin – he stuck his nose in where it hurts.”
Tordoff also continued to present a mature, logical approach to the championship battle, which he currently leads by a mere three points from Neal, insisting that each race result as it comes is the most important thing and consistency remains the key.
“There’s a long way to go in the championship so we’re not thinking about the future and we’re not too worried about the long term right now. We keep scoring points and what will be will be.”
Tordoff will start the third and final race at Knockhill from 5th position after Mat Jackson was reversed onto pole position. It gets underway at 17:10.