Andrew Jordan will take the Pirtek Racing colours to the WSR BMW team for the 2017 British Touring Car Championship, after the 2013 champion signed a two-year deal with the reigning teams’ champions.
It had last month been revealed that Jordan would not continue with the Motorbase Performance squad for whom he raced in the 2016 season. Jordan’s switch to WSR in rear-wheel drive machinery for 2017 marks the third new team in three years.
Jordan took two wins for the Kent-based team in 2016 on his way to eighth overall in the drivers’ championship, but he had already announced his intention to leave the team in October as he seeks a return to regular winning ways as he had done during his days racing Honda machinery between 2013 and 2014.
“I’m incredibly excited about joining WSR, who have been one of the outstanding teams in the BTCC for the past 20 years and achieved so much success in single-seater racing before that with legends like Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen,” said Jordan.
“To have signed a multi-year deal is fantastic as it gives myself and Pirtek the continuity to build something really special with WSR over the next two seasons.
“I’ve been very impressed by what I’ve seen of the way WSR operate and am sure that we can be right at the sharp end throughout the 2017 season. I’ve never raced a rear-wheel-drive car in the BTCC, but the BMW has proven to be one of the best cars on the grid and I’m looking forward to learning plenty over the winter.”
WSR Team Principal was full of praise for Jordan as he welcomed him to the team which took the 2016 Constructors’ and Teams’ titles.
“It’s great to welcome Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing to WSR,” said Bennetts. “Andrew is one of the fastest and most successful drivers in the BTCC and crucially knows how to win a championship.
“Being able to announce this exciting news in November enables us to make the best possible use of the time available between now and the start of the 2017 season and kick off our winter testing programme with Andrew before the end of the month.
“The team have been working hard on the development of the BMW to make sure we’re title contenders again next year.”
Jordan will begin testing the 1-Series later in the month, whilst WSR are hoping to reveal the rest of their driver line-up before the year is out.