Despite losing out to both Tom Ingram and eventual pole-sitter Jason Plato during the dying embers of qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s British Touring Car Championship triple-header at Knockhill, title contender Sam Tordoff is pleased to be starting from the second row.
The Team JCT600 with GardX driver, currently three points adrift of team-mate Rob Collard at the summit of the standings, posted a fastest time of 51.551 seconds, just 0.030 slower than the Subaru Levorg GT of Plato, who incidentally celebrates his 500th race start in race one tomorrow.
In the process of doing so, Tordoff also managed to save an entire set of fresh tyres by sacrificing some of his quality running during free practice, ensuring the BMW 125i M-Sport has an extra weapon in it’s arsenal at some stage during either the second or third race tomorrow.
With a red flag stoppage during the closing stages of the thirty-minute session, the clock was reset to five minutes and a number of drivers debated whether to run again or not. With the entire field electing to take one more run, Tordoff was among a group who did so regardless of being satisfied with their standing.
The 27-year old has re-iterated a mature, logical approach to the title fight as he insisted he was after a hat-trick of top eight finishes at each round from now until the finale in order to secure his maiden Drivers crown. A strong strategy in principle, and one that has so far worked out.
With this in mind, Tordoff expressed his delight when speaking to TouringCars.net shortly after qualifying had concluded.
“We can’t not be happy with that, can we? We went under last years pole time, which was mega, and with 66kg on board; I don’t think we can argue with that at all.” he commented.
“Alright, I was slightly annoyed to get pipped [to pole position], but with five minutes to go when there was a red flag, I told the boys I wasn’t even bothered about going back out again and if we get pipped then so be it.”
Looking ahead to the opening encounter, which gets underway at 11:50 tomorrow, Tordoff highlighted second position as his goal, with an early move on Tom Ingram in front pivotal to his plan to sit behind Jason Plato, who he believes with no success ballast on board and rear-wheel drivetrain will prove too difficult to match over a race distance, with Tordoff carrying 66 kilograms due to his championship position.
“I think just to get off the line, get past [Ingram] and sit on Jason [Plato]’s bumper [is the goal].”
“We’ve got great race pace. Obviously he’s got no weight so I think over a race distance he’ll have that bit in reserve but if we finish second tomorrow in race one then it’s a great haul of points.”
He was also quick to underline his faith in Team IHG Rewards Club and West Surrey Racing stablemate Jack Goff, who starts in a season-best fourth alongside. With a few high-profile instances of team-mates clashing in the BTCC in recent years, such as the one between Andy Priaulx and Rob Collard at Oulton Park last year, Tordoff was keen to alleviate any concerns that the two might engage in unnecessary contact during the first race.
“No [I’m not worried], because he’s not an idiot and he won’t do anything to fire me off. I say that now, he’ll probably fire me off at turn one!” he joked.
“No, he’s not an idiot, he knows the game and I’m confident we can all work together for the result.”
He also shed some light on his tyre choices between now and the end of the campaign, again laying out a carefully thought out plan that should, in theory, see him score consistently and well for the remaining twelve rounds of the season.
He also believes the softer Dunlop compound rubber is set to be the weapon of choice at the challenging 1.27 mile Knockhill circuit for the second consecutive season.
“We didn’t use any new tyres in free practice so we had twelve to use in qualifying, and we only used eight, so I’ve also got four brand new tyres.”
“I’m going to go soft tyre in race one, same as Jack [Goff]. We think the soft tyre is the better tyre, last year it was, so we just want to get the points in early and with our strategy for the remaining four rounds, it works out. We’ve basically picked our soft tyre choices for the next three rounds and worked out tomorrow that we’re going race one.”
With Tordoff arguably in the form of his career so far, and having been involved in title fights both at MG and last season with WSR, there are many who hold the Yorkshireman as a future champion in waiting. This journalist predicted Tordoff would win the title before we convened for the series opener at Brands Hatch in April, and he certainly seems to be coming good on the promise he has shown thus far, with consistency between now and the end of the season surely the only thing in his path to a first crown.