BTCCTouring Cars

Jackson Looking To Strengthen Title Challenge At Croft

2 Mins read

Mat Jackson is hoping to continue his recent momentum and leave himself in a strong championship position heading into the BTCC's summer break.

The Airwaves Racing man took victory in race three at the last round at Oulton Park to move to within seven points of series leader Matt Neal heading into this weekend's meeting at Croft.

The North Yorkshire circuit hasn't been a successful venue for the Warwickshire driver in the past but he is hopeful of changing that, despite carrying 27kg of success ballast into qualifying and race one.

“On the back of our Oulton Park performance two weeks ago, we are all excited about our trip north to the Croft circuit. For myself,  it is one of the few circuits that I have not achieved an outright win at and am keen to add it to this list sooner rather than later!”

Liam Griffin visits Croft for the first time and will be hoping for better luck than he had at Oulton Park. The BTCC rookie suffered an oil leak in qualifying after running his Focus are tore off the sump. Race day didn't yield any points as the Barnet driver lost out in the tricky conditions.

Griffin does feel he is moving in the right direction though and is hoping that the rub of the green will go his way this weekend.

“I have only raced at Croft once before but it is a great circuit with a fantastic atmosphere. Before the last round I felt that I was getting to grips with the car and the Championship but the conditions at Oulton really made it quite tough. That said, I do feel on the verge of a bit of a breakthrough and surely some luck must be due to my way! “

Team manager Olly Collins expects the Kent-based team to continue their good form from two weeks ago, and is looking to keep in touch with their championship rivals this weekend heading into the seven-week hiatus.

“We like Croft, it's a fantastic circuit and venue and they always get a great turn out on the day. We're looking forward to taking some of our pace from Oulton Park into this coming weekend and with Mat in a strong position for the title race, we hope to strengthen that even further. It will be yet another learning weekend for Liam; however we're confident that he will progress further in this first weekend of front wheel drive touring car action at the North Yorkshire circuit. The team have worked extremely hard again to turn the cars around from an action packed weekend at Oulton Park and I hope we can repay their efforts with a strong showing.”

Qualifying is scheduled for 15:05 on Saturday with all three races live on ITV4 & ITV4HD on Sunday, starting at 11:30am.

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