Team GardX Racing’s Sam Tordoff believes he will remain at the sharp end in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone despite carrying maximum ballast.
Race one polesitter Tordoff led lights to flag to take his first victory of 2018, leading home a Motorbase 1-2 to become the 15th different winner in the BTCC this season.
He told TouringCars.Net that he enjoyed the first race in which fellow Ford Focus RS racer Tom Chilton “kept him honest” until the chequered flag.
“It’s good that it ended up like that – it was a good race – Tom kept me honest,” said Tordoff. “I was interrupted by the safety car but I got a good restart and it was all looking good until I made a mistake at Luffield and let Tom back in.
“I was a bit nervous for a couple of corners then just trying to calm the storm. The team did a fantastic job but it’s been a long time coming.
“Now we need to put weight in and try and do the same for race two.”
Tordoff knew the start would be crucial with rear-wheel drive Ricky Collard alongside him, but the Leeds racer managed to get his Ford ahead of Collard’s BMW before turn one.
“That was hugely important, I dived across and immediately got across him and sent him the long way around which didn’t work out for him,” he said.
“Kudos to him for trying and he picked up a good result in the end finishing third. It seemed like quite an exciting race behind, back in the next pack!
“But up at the front it was fairly relaxed, just managing the gap to Tom and he’s got a championship to think about so I knew he wouldn’t do anything too stupid.”
Having opted to run the prime compound again for race two, Tordoff feels he can remain competitive even with the 75kg maximum ballast.
He also feels Chilton may act as a rear gunner in the opening laps as he runs the harder tyre with 66kg of success ballast onboard his Ford.
“Just because we’re going to put 75 kilos in now I don’t think it’s going to kill us – yes it’s going to hurt – it’s going to have a negative effect, but I think we should still be competitive,” said Tordoff.
“I’m on the medium tyre which is some consolation, Tom is on the hard so he is going to struggle.
“So hopefully he might block the pack up and let me get away.”