BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan was left frustrated after issues in qualifying forced him to recover during Sunday’s three British Touring Car Championship races at Donington Park.
The 2013 BTCC champion showed strong pace in a wet opening practice session, clocking a time worthy of third position.
A split turbo pipe then hampered Jordan in second practice, which was repeated in spectacular fashion during qualifying, as his BMW 125i M Sport bellowed out smoke and he could not set a representative lap.
Jordan told TouringCars.Net that despite the problems ultimately being out of his control, he still felt he had missed out on a good chance to score solid results.
“I’m still very frustrated because the problem in qualifying has ruined our weekend,” said Jordan.
“In free practice one in the wet we had very good pace, and I think we had a top six car in qualifying. Race one and two were tough and we shouldn’t have had to be in that position but race three was good to come through and salvage some points, it’s just a weekend of what could have been really.
“It’s out of my control, and I feel I’ve driven the car all weekend so it’s good to salvage something out of it but also it’s a missed opportunity.”
As the championship now heads to Thruxton on 19/20 May, Jordan admits the Hampshire circuit may not suit his rear-wheel drive BMW.
“I love the circuit, but it’s probably not going to be our strongest weekend if I’m honest,” he said.
“It won’t be our strongest circuit just because of rear-wheel drive, it suits front-wheel drive a little bit more.
“That said if we can come away with good points and then we head to Oulton [Park] and to Croft then it should play right into our hands.”
All three WSR runners struggled for wet pace on Saturday, and Jordan’s stablemate Colin Turkington endured a miserable race day.
The two-time BTCC champion suffered from a broken water pump on the grid for race two, with an engine change ahead of race three failing to resolve the issue.
The reverse-grid contest provided some consolation for Rob Collard and Jordan, as the pair both made significant progress to secure fourth and fifth respectively.
“It’s obviously not been a great start to the season for all three of us,” said Jordan. “But if we can just keep our heads together and work well at Thruxton, then we can hopefully pick up some good point scores and finishes at Oulton.
“So obviously still a long way to go [in the championship] but we could have done without a weekend like we’ve had due to the issue in qualifying.
“I feel comfortable in the car, the car feels good so I’m sure we’ll be there towards the end it’s just a bit of a hard road to it at the moment.”