Silverstone podium for Jordan and Pirtek Racing

Uncategorised,Racing

Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan was back on the podium at Silverstone (26/27 September) during rounds 25, 26 and 27 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. Had he not suffered a puncture on the final lap of the second race, it could have been an even better day.
Andrew was racing the works MG6 GT run by Triple Eight Racing in the penultimate race weekend of the BTCC season and, after several difficult weekends, was strongly in the mix. In the second race he was running fourth when the front left tyre picked up a puncture on the final lap. That also wrecked his chances for the third race as he had to start 19th on the grid but battled up to 12th at the finish.

On Saturday, he qualified fourth fastest and was less than three-tenths of a second away from pole position. “Qualifying was good and we put in a great run of laps,” he said. “I was pleased with our lap time; we’d got some ballast on board too, so to get right up in the mix was encouraging.”

Andrew started the opening race on the soft compound tyres but pulled off two good moves in the first two laps to battle through to second behind the Ford Focus of Mat Jackson. “Then it was a case of managing the tyres because Gordon Shedden was coming on strong but I knew he wouldn’t do anything silly because he needed the championship points.”

With 66kg of success ballast for race two, it looked like the MG was on the way to another good result as Andrew ran fourth until two corners to go on the final lap. “Then the left front tyre punctured on the way down to Becketts,” he said. The MG limped around the final lap, but dropped to 19th place and that left Andrew starting from 19th place on the grid for race three.

With a storming opening stint, Andrew charged up to 12th place by mid-race. “Unfortunately, going that hard early on just killed the tyres and I couldn’t do anything when I caught Tom Ingram, who was battling with Aiden Moffatt for tenth place. My aim was to try and get into third in the championship and that was realistic based on where we were running in race two.” Andrew is now fifth in the overall BTCC standings with just the final three races at come at Brands Hatch on 11 October.

Pirtek is Europe’s number one provider of hydraulic solutions and mobile hose replacement, with over 170 centres supported by over 700 mobile service workshops throughout Europe. Offering solutions to a number of business sectors, including the automotive industry.