BTCC: Andrew Jordan – a classy career plagued by bad luck

On 30 June, Andrew Jordan took to social media and announced his departure from 2020’s BTCC campaign.

Despite losing long-term sponsor Pirtek in mid 2019, Jordan partnered with factory-backed Team BMW in December later that year, and looked fully-fit to challenge for the coveted title once more.

However, COVID-19’s crippling effect on motorsport seems to have sealed Jordan’s demise, blaming it, among other things, for his decision to withdraw from touring cars indefinitely.

Born in 1989 in Sutton Coldfield, Jordan initiated his racing career through rallycross at the age of 14, and quickly found success. During five years, he won races at various levels, and finished runner-up in the 2007 British Rallycross Championship.

Andrew has always stated his love for this discipline of racing, highlighted through appearances in the World Rallycross Championship in 2014 and 2015, as well as demonstrations in RX cars at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

In 2007, Jordan also raced in the Renault Clio Cup, acting as a support category for the BTCC. Despite finishing 12th in the final standings, with a PB of 2nd at Brands Hatch, he would partner his dad, Mike Jordan, for the following year’s BTCC season with Team Eurotech.

Driving in an ex-Team Dynamics Honda Intergra, Jordan clinched two podiums, and ended the season in 13th, one spot above his dad.

2009 saw a switch in teams for the West Midlands-born man, now in a Vectra for the works Vauxhall team. During the season, Jordan became the youngest ever driver to bag a pole position in qualifying, doing so at Donington Park, and finished 2nd three times on his way to 10th in the standings.

In 2010, Jordan rejoined his family’s team, now known as Pirtek Racing, but remained in a Vauxhall Vectra. He claimed his first BTCC victory in the reverse-grid race at Croft, repeating the effort in the final race at Brands Hatch GP.

Similar success was achieved in 2011 and 2012, claiming the Independents’ title in the latter.

Jordan fulfilled his lifelong goal in 2013, outright winning the BTCC Drivers’ title behind the wheel of a Honda Civic. He entered the final round on top on the standings, with four other previous champions still mathematically viable for the crown.

Despite a scare in the second race, which caused him to start last for the final one of the year, Jordan maturely overcame the grim weather, and won the title by finishing in 10th place.

2014 was Andrew’s final year at Pirtek Racing, and finished 5th overall, before moving to Triple Eight in 2015 and Motorbase in 2016, finishing 5th and 8th in the years’ standings, respectively.

The highly successful West Surrey Racing was to be Jordan’s next destination in 2017, where he stayed up until his withdrawal from the BTCC. Touring the country in various BMW models, he would ultimately claim 10 wins for team over a three-year period.

In what was perhaps his unluckiest year, 2019 saw Jordan crash out in Donington Park’s first race, which in turn led to two non-starters for the rest of the weekend. Finishing only two points behind teammate and eventual champion Colin Turkington, these DNF/Ss surely prevented Jordan from claiming a deserved second title.

Unfortunately, bad luck seemed to follow Andrew’s BTCC exploits, inadvertently collecting a spinning Senna Proctor at Knockhill later that year, succumbing to illness at Thruxton in 2018, as well as plenty of technical faults scuppering high points-finishes across his career.

All seemed well leading up to 2020’s restart round in August, with Jordan quickly resolving the loss of long-term sponsor Pirtek through Team BMW.

Sadly, this proved to not be the case, with Jordan writing on social media:

“After much thought and consideration, I have made the difficult decision to not compete in the BTCC 2020 season with Team BMW.

“The current climate has impacted all of us more than we could ever have anticipated. Unfortunately, this has placed me in a position where my head had to overrule my heart, and the tough decision was made to not compete this season.

“For now, I’m going to take stock and plan what our new future looks like. Wherever that might be, I hope we can meet again soon.”

Andrew Jordan

In addition to this, Jordan, speaking on Goodwood’s website, said:

“Does all of this mean I’ll be hanging up my helmet? Not a chance. I’ve always been one to jump in different things, whether it’s World Rallycross, historics or GTs.

“I’m in the fortunate position that I’ve been able to put myself out there while driving touring cars, and I know that I can drive pretty much anything and drive fast – I’m not a one-trick pony. But, for now, I’ll just have a bit of a reset.”

Personally, I interpret these words as Jordan’s permanent farewell from British Touring Cars. Perhaps a cameo may be made in the future akin to those of Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu, but for now, at least, Jordan will be targeting ventures elsewhere, such as his historic car business.

With 355 starts, 26 wins, 72 podiums and one championship title all to his name, Andrew Jordan is truly a legend of the BTCC, and his presence in the series will be sorely missed.