Sam Tordoff says the ‘early signs are good’ after Motorbase Performance made setup changes to his Ford Focus RS following a test post-Snetterton.
The GardX Protection-backed racer ended the opening British Touring Car Championship practice session at Rockingham in third, a mere 0.059 seconds adrift of pace-setter and championship leader Tom Ingram.
Speaking to TouringCars.net post-session, Tordoff believes the Ford has fundamentally good pace around the 1.94 mile Northamptonshire speed bowl.
He also says the early indications are good that the team have made a step forward, despite being sent down a slightly different development path by their findings in testing.
“It’s all going well so far, I think we fundamentally have quite a lot of pace in the car, the lap time was good,” explained Tordoff.
“It’s just nice to be back at Rockingham again and get dialled in in a touring car, I’ve not been here in a little while.
“The day has started well. We learnt a few things during a test last week post-Snetterton, which has sent us off down a different path and we needed to come here this weekend and validate it.
“So far the early signs are good and we need to keep working in that same vein and hopefully continue this pace throughout the day.”
By virtue of sitting 10th in the standings the Yorkshireman only has 9 kilograms of success ballast to contend with in qualifying and the opening race at Rockingham, a circuit that should highlight the weight advantage compared to his rivals.
He also stated that the triple-header in Corby could prove vital to his championship aspirations, with Tordoff plagued by several unlucky non-finishes earlier in the campaign.
“I think [it will be an even bigger advantage], it’s quite stop-start,” he added.
“There are some big hairpins to get out of, so that will hurt, and the track surface is super-abrasive, so over a race distance if you’ve got ballast on board it will hurt.
“We need to qualify well and finish on the podium in the first race to start picking up some points, because it’s been a disaster so far this year in terms of our championship.
“We’ve not got going and I can’t string three races together without having a DNF. There were some statistics being banded about yesterday about how I’m the best average qualifier by a mile – and I am.
“Tragically, we haven’t converted that, I haven’t been on the podium this year. It’s shocking to all intents and purposes. We’ve got four rounds to turn it around, it’s not all over yet.”
He did, however, admit another DNF could spell the end of his chances of claiming a first BTCC title in his comeback season after a sabbatical away in the British GT Championship.
“I think if we have another DNF this weekend we can kiss any chance of getting in the championship top five goodbye. If we have three mega results and come away with forty-odd points, then actually we might have an outside chance still.”