With a difficult 2015 British Touring Car Championship season behind him, Motorbase driver Andrew Jordan is looking forward to being able to challenge for a second driver’s title, having claimed his first back in 2013.
Last year saw the 26-year-old finish fifth overall with 274 points, with former team mate Jack Goff just a further 41 points behind.
Speaking with TouringCars.net at the Autosport International Show, Jordan explained about the Triple Eight-run MG6 potentially having “a lack of development,” despite the car showing speed at tracks like Oulton Park and Snetterton.
“When you looked to the comparison on where the car had been on laptime, we were a little bit quicker, but everyone had moved on so much more,” he said, admitting that testing the Ford Focus at the end of last year put him “back in love with driving touring cars.”
“They lucked out as they had done the previous year, and had lost their chief engineer, who had moved to BMR with Jason, which brought a pretty big hit to the team, in terms of development.
“Everyone has difficult years, character building years, and I was relieved to get in the Focus at the end of the year at Brands Hatch.”
Jordan’s winless streak reaches back to the last race at Croft back in 2014, with four second place finishes at Donington Park, Throuxton, Oulton Park and Silverstone being his best results last season.
After his test at Brands Hatch with David Bartrum’s outfit, he admitted that he asked himself why he didn’t sign with Motorbase initially, rather than go to Triple Eight.
“Doing that could have put me in touch for the championship. Yes, the performance is the number one thing, as you want to win. Sponsors prefer it if you win, but they still get pretty good coverage at the front end of the grid.
“Sponsors got a very good bang for their buck. But it’s about how to deal with the sponsors within a team, dealing with the team from behind the scenes, and with David and Olly at Motorbase, it’s been so far, so good. I get on very well with them, it’s a good working relationship. I can’t wait to get down to the nitty gritty.”
With RML now providing the new standardised parts package for all cars for the BTCC until 2021, which was announced back in August, will see everyone “sort of starting from scratch a little bit,” as Jordan explained, but he felt very happy behind the wheel of the Mountune-powered Focus.
“I was very happy, and it was very responsive to driver input, felt more like the Honda did. I felt home in it straightaway and it did what I wanted it to do.
“I went home very, very happy, regardless of times, but it was more of the feeling of the car made me happy. The time was very strong for that time of year, and with the tyres that I was on.
“Let me put is this way, if we were to have a race weekend that week, we would have been in a very strong position, I feel, and that was just after one test.”
Even with RML’s new involvement as a technical partner, he also felt that the likes of Neal, Plato and defending champion Gordon Shedden, will be fighting for the title throughout the season, as in recent years.
“It’s great to see teams expanding, but I still think it will be the usual guys at the front on a regular basis. It’s one thing to be quick over a weekend basis, or scoring a good weekend of points, but it’s putting those weekends together.”
This was a point he also mentioned about Goff, who will now be racing with Team IHG® Rewards Club following his departure from Triple Eight: ” I get on really well with Jack, and I think he’ll do really well in that team.
“So I wish Jack all the best. It’s a great opportunity for him, and his speed is unquestioned, but it’s just being consistent over the season, with his points difference to me at the end of the year.”
He is also aware that Honda Yuasa Racing will be in the mix, as a third TBL has been secured for 2016, so a new driver will join Neal and Shedden, bringing the total of Civic Type-Rs to six for this season.
“They’ll be strong. I don’t know if they’ll be running a new engine, but I think they’ll be strong on a regular basis. The past few years, they’ve built the fastest, most consistent cars, as I know, having been in one of their cars.
“So 100% percent, they’ll be a challenger come the end of the year, as they normally are.”
With Motorbase having one seat left, it would be a welcome sight to see Mat Jackson alongside the 2013 Champion. This is based on Jackson’s sterling performance in the second half of last season, with four wins and multiple pole positions showing what the team is capable of.