After a first win of the British Touring Car season at Donington Park Andrew Jordan is confident of another strong weekend for Pirtek Racing at Thruxton as the 21-year-old describes the Hampshire speedrome as the team's “strongest circuit”.
However, Jordan, who will begin the May Bank Holiday weekend meeting fourth in points warns that he and the team will have to be “conservative” to avoid more punctures such as the pair which dampened his season opening Brands Hatch races and also struck at Thruxton in 2010 when it played host of the first races of the year.
The track surface at the airfield track is notoriously hard on tyres, with the long, fast right handers of Village and Church presenting a new challenge to the teams compared to that offered by Brands Hatch and Donington Park already in 2011.
“We need to go there and be conservative on set-up and make sure we get finishes and not any punctures,” warns Jordan. “After a bad weekend at Brands, we're now in the championship hunt and we've just got to keep doing what we're doing.”
Jordan's Pirtek Racing teammate – Jeff Smith – will be hoping to carry his own good form from Donington Park to Thruxton. The former Clio Cup racer took fifth place in the third and final race of the Donington weekend, a testament – one top of his debut Brands points – to how well he adapted to the BTCC.
Thanks to Smith and Jordan's combined efforts the team lie third in the Independents' Teams' championship, chasing Airwaves racing and Triple Eight race Engineering into the Thruxton weekend.
