BTCC: Another Double Ignites Jordan’s Championship Challenge

For the second British Touring Car Championship race meeting in a row, BMW’s Andrew Jordan took two race wins at Croft as he continues to limit the damage suffered from missing all three races at Donington Park earlier in the season.

His superb weekend began in qualifying as he took pole position despite losing his best lap for causing one of five red flags in a truncated session. Joint championship leader Rory Butcher failed to set a time after he spun and heavily collided with the tyre wall on the exit of the chicane at the start of the lap.

Instead it was BTC Racing’s Chris Smiley who would line up second ahead of Tom Chilton and the other championship leader Colin Turkington.

Race One

As the lights went out it was as-you-were at the front, as Turkington and teammate Tom Oliphant (starting fifth) couldn’t make use of the rear-wheel drive advantage off the line and had to hold station behind Chilton. Chilton’s teammate Ollie Jackson had been running well within the top 10 before sliding wide out of Sunny and clattered the Styrofoam barrier on the exit, ripping the front of his Ford Focus RS to pieces. Rob Collard then lost control at the same corner and was stranded, bringing out the safety car. Jackson’s damage caused a puncture to his right front tyre and he speared off into the gravel under yellow.

It took six laps for racing to resume, but when it did there were no more changes as the race ran its course. This meant Jordan took victory ahead of Smiley, Chilton, Turkington and Oliphant.

Podium: Jordan; Smiley; Chilton

Race Two

Once again, Jordan’s BMW flew off the line and into the lead as Smiley held second. Chilton and Oliphant came to blows at Clervoe with the latter then spinning out of the chicane. This promoted local-boy Dan Cammish to fourth after a disappointing qualifying where he felt he had the pace for pole. Jake Hill had a torrid day in his Audi, as he pulled off with what was later said to be an engine failure, which ended his day a race early.

Smiley had built a monumental train behind, him before Turkington did superbly to go around the outside at the Jim Clark Esses for second. By this point, Jordan had built a five second lead and the Irishman couldn’t catch his teammate. Cammish also passed Smiley down the inside at Tower and pulled clear of the BTC Racing driver, before Matt Neal’s charging Dynamics Honda got through into Sunny, a move the veteran driver had pulled off a number of times in the race.

The last lap saw Ash Sutton attempt to pass Smiley at the complex but contact sent the latter spinning onto the grass and out of points contention as Jordan cruised to another win – his fifth of the season already – with Turkington, Cammish, Neal and Sutton completing the top 5. Sutton though was slapped with a five-place grid penalty for race three as a result of the incident.

Podium: Jordan; Turkington; Cammish

Race Three

After dropping to ninth in race two, it was Chilton who was drawn on reverse grid pole but heavy rain during the previous support race meant brave choices had to be made on tyres. The vast majority played it safe on wets as there was still plenty of standing water but third-placed Tom Ingram took a gamble on slicks. It didn’t pay off as he finished outside the points in 16th.

He dropped like a stone off the start as Jordan bolted from eighth to fourth, until Neal dove down the inside at Tower to reclaim the place. Jack Goff’s horrid season continued as he gambled on slicks before being punted by Smiley’s repaired Honda and he couldn’t go any further which brought out the safety car.

The star of race three was Sutton who pulled off a number of well-executed overtakes at the hairpin, despatching Cammish, Turkington, Jordan and Neal on his way to a fourth placed finish. But no-one could quite get close enough to Chilton who took the chequered flag from Josh Cook and Jason Plato, who stayed on his tail all race long.

Podium: Chilton; Cook; Plato

Turkington is now the outright championship leader after Butcher’s difficult weekend, he’s 11 points clear of Cook, with Sutton a further two points behind. The series next heads to Oulton Park in Cheshire (29th-30th June) for the final round before the summer break, where Turkington and the rear-wheel drive brigade will be hoping to make hay of the advantages they gain at the circuit.