BTCC: A Look Back at Jordan’s career as Doubt Cast over Future

It’s become an iconic figure of the BTCC grid but Andrew Jordan at the hands of a Pirtek-liveried touring car is soon to be a thing of the past.

Jordan has raced under the Pirtek Racing banner in variolous forms since 2010 and won his title with them in 2013 but with the company announcing 2019 will be their last year in the BTCC, Jordan is now faced with a career-defining decision.

Before we look at his next steps, let’s rewind and remember his racing career to date.

Where it Began

Jordan’s first foray into car racing came back in 2003 in the Ford Rally Academy before going on to win the Winter Junior Rallycross Championship. Jordan was incredibly successful on the dirt-asphalt combined circuits, winning four titles in 2005 and becoming the youngest driver and winner in the British Rallycross Supercar Championship a year later.

This same year (2006) Jordan dabbled in circuit racing in the SEAT Cupra Championship before a full season of Renault Clio Cup UK action came in 2007. This series supports the BTCC around the country so AJ could stay close to his father and then-racer Mike, who had his own BTCC team at the time.

After a 12th-placed finish in the Clio Cup with a season-best result of second, he joined father Mike in a two-car effort at Eurotech Racing for 2008 and the teenager was soon up-to-speed. Despite driving an aging Honda Integra, (formerly of championship winning Team Dynamics) AJ scored podiums at Oulton Park and Knockhill to finish 13th in the standings, one place ahead of his much more experienced father and teammate.

His impressive debut season earnt him a drive with the works Vauxhall team who ran three Vauxhall Vectra’s with two-time champion Fabrizio Giovinardi and then two, now three-time champion Matt Neal alongside him. Jordan scored his first pole position at Donington Park to become the youngest ever BTCC pole sitter – albeit for only a year – but it was an underwhelming year for the whole team which led to Vauxhall pulling out as a manufacturer at the end of the year. AJ finished behind both teammates in the final standings.

Pirtek Deal and Burgeoning Success

2010 saw him return to Pirtek and the comfort of family but with the familiarity of the Vauxhall Vectra carried over from a previous year. The team stuck a TOCA designed NGTC engine under the bonnet (to be used from 2011 onwards) and scored their first two victories at Croft and the finale at Brands Hatch.

2011 and 2012 saw Jordan continue to fight right at the front and pick up more race wins in a two-car effort with Jeff Smith joining the team, now running ex-Dynamics Honda Civic Type R’s as the Vectra, they had been using in 2010, was dropped from the series. 2012 was particularly fruitful for AJ racking up 346 points on his way to fourth in the overall standings and winning the Independent’s title for the first time.

Then came 2013 and finally the moment AJ had been striving for his whole career. Starting the year off in fine style he took pole at the season opener at Brands Hatch before going on to claim six race victories and six further podium to beat Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden by seven points and become one of the youngest BTCC champions in history. He survived a DNF in the penultimate race of the season and Shedden winning the finale as he produced a storming drive to ninth from the back of the grid to earn his crown.

2014 looked to be more of the same as he won the opening two rounds of the season but struggled to re-capture that electrifying speed and eventually went on to finish fifth overall.

Team Switching and BMW Powerhouse

After a difficult year, the constant changes began in 2015 as he ditched the ever-quick Honda for the MG6 paired with Jack Goff and again didn’t quite have enough for a real title push and it was another fifth placed finish for AJ before another post-season car change. This time opting for the Ford Focus ST which has always been a front-runner in it’s BTCC era but Jordan still couldn’t find the performances required and he ended 2016 in a dismal eighth in the table.

2017 saw the last big change for AJ as he joined the WSR squad in rear-wheel drive machinery for the first time in his BTCC career. He picked up three wins over the course of the year but a lack of consistency meant he could only muster ninth in the championship. But despite the low finish, he stayed with the BMW for 2018 and only took one race win but in the most wide-open year perhaps of all-time, AJ was able to take fifth overall as his teammate Colin Turkington took the title.

Into 2019 and whilst AJ stayed with the same team for a third year in succession, he had a new car to get to grips with as BMW introduced the 330i saloon into the series to replace the 125i hatchback. The speed of the car was instant and he took five victories in the first fifteen races and only sits second overall after not scoring any points at Donington Park after a crash in race one left him with concussion. With his long-time sponsors Pirtek pulling their funding at the end of the year, this might be AJ’s last chance to win a second BTCC title with 30 points separating him and Championship leader Turkington.

What Next for AJ and WSR?

If 2019 is the end for Jordan in the BTCC, then it’s likely that he’ll venture into rallycross which he’s dabbled in over recent years, even taking a podium finish in the World Rallycross Championship at Lydden Hill in 2014. It would be a return to his roots and in a discipline he knows well, you would have to assume he’d be a serious contender whatever rallycross division he enters.

It’s not just Jordan that would be thinking what next, WSR would have a car that needs filling. It’s safe to assume that the majority of the BTCC grid would jump at the chance to drive what is probably the strongest car in the field so they can almost pick whoever they want.

Goff will for sure be an option having looked like he would go without a ride in 2019 if it wasn’t for a last-minute call from Team HARD but Goff has been languishing towards the rear of the midfield for most of the season and would love to be back in a competitive car fighting towards the front again as he was in years previous with Eurotech.

Whoever BMW choose to fill that third car, you can guarantee they will be immediately towards the front of the grid and giving teammates Turkington and Tom Oliphant a run for their money.

And we can only hope that Jordan finds somewhere to show off his massive talent and loveable personality that – if he leaves the series altogether – will leave a big hole in the BTCC paddock.