Sam Tordoff says it ‘absolutely’ feels as though his 2018 British Touring Car Championship challenge began last weekend at Thruxton, with the Motorbase Performance putting recent bad luck behind him to score a trio of fourth-placed finishes.
A string of frustrating performances had seen Tordoff score a best result of just 11th from the opening six races despite strong showings in qualifying, but that run came to an end in Hampshire, with the GardX-backed racer leaping up to 14th overall in the standings as a result.
The Ford Focus RS driver also said he ‘didn’t care’ about missing out on silverware on each of the three occasions, partly with success ballast to manage but also because his focus remained on banking consistent points across all three rounds.
“We needed to come here and score some points, absolutely,” said Tordoff to TouringCars.net.
“Three fourth places is perfect, I don’t care that I haven’t been on the podium, we just need to pick up points and we’ve catapulted ourselves a long way forward in the championship.
“I think we’ve struggled a little bit in the hot temperatures and we didn’t really get the car right in race one to optimize it – since then, we’ve been carrying weight and managing the success ballast and, as you can see, if you’ve got the weight you’re just managing the tyres.
“I’m not bothered, the car has been fantastic this weekend. Its happy days, for me.
“My championship definitely hadn’t started before this weekend, so all in all it’s been a cracking weekend.”
The series reconvenes next at Oulton Park, in Cheshire, over the weekend of 09-10 June.