Motorbase Performance’s Sam Tordoff believes his Ford Focus RS is “quick wet or dry” after he qualified in third position for race one of the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park.
The 2016 runner-up had planted his car on provisional pole midway through the half-hour session, but was demoted to the second row of the grid after late laps from polesitter Josh Cook and BTC Norlin’s Chris Smiley.
Despite initial disappointment at losing out on pole, Tordoff told TouringCars.Net he is confident of his chances in today’s races.
“We’ve been fast for most of the day really,” said Tordoff after qualifying. “The car feels good in the wet, it’s nice to obviously prove that we’ve got wet pace as well as dry pace.
“I got pipped to pole which was slightly disappointing, but, we did loads of fast laps – they did one quick lap!
“We’re genuinely quick, so a lot to be positive about.”
With consistently wet weather making track conditions slippy yesterday, no rain is forecast for raceday, although conditions remain chilly at the Leicestershire circuit.
“I think I’d rather it’d be dry,” said Tordoff. “We’ve got a good setup in here from when we were in media day. We’re quick wet or dry as far as I’m concerned.
“If it is a dry race it’s going to be a level playing field for everyone, because no-one’s had any dry running today. We’ll see what comes.”
Tordoff had an even better run in qualifying for the season opener at Brands Hatch, where he secured a front-row start behind polesitter Jack Goff, but 13th place in race three was the best result he managed.
“We won’t be making any stupid tyre choices which will ruin the first race that’s for sure.
“We’ll go with the majority, which it looks like will be dry. We’ll just get some points on the board that’s the important thing.”
Tordoff has opted to run the hard tyre in race three of the weekend, as most of the BTCC grid have also elected to do.