Electrics Issue Frustrates Andrew Jordan At Brands Hatch

Andrew Jordan, Brands Hatch (Photo Credit: Chris Enion)

The penultimate round of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch proved to be a frustrating one for Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing.

The weekend started well for Jordan and the team, after a fantastic performance in qualifying, setting a time that put him P2 on the grid. Unfortunately a computer problem prevented the car from starting the race, meaning that Jordan could not capitalize on his impression qualifying pace. The race one mishap meant that the car would be starting from 29^th and last on the grid for race two. A determined battle through the field eventually allowed him to finish in the points in P8. Pirtek teammate Jeff Smith also had a testing weekend, with a best finish of 15^th place.

“Qualifying was really good,” said Andrew. “The car was very good and I put a good lap together despite the amount of traffic. We knew we'd be strong on the Brands Grand Prix circuit, but I didn't expect to be as high as second. We've been struggling a bit in qualifying, so it felt good to be up there next to Jason Plato,” he said.

The root of the problem for Jordan was the fact that the team decided to do a precautionary engine change on Saturday night. “When I went to go out, there was nothing on the starter button,” said Andrew. “All the electrics were wrong and it seems that one of the computer boxes had crashed. The engineers from Triple 8, who supply those parts, came up after the race and were able to re-set it. But we don't have access to that. That meant we missed the first and started at the back of the grid for the second race.”

From 29th place on the record size grid, Andrew raced hard to get through to 16th at the finish. “The car had some understeer and that was about all I could do,” he reported. “The last race was quite good and I went from 16th through to 8th place, which was OK considering where we started. I managed to keep clear of the incidents and got something out of the weekend, but from P2 on the grid it could have been a really good weekend.”