Andrew Jordan closed to within 10 points of the championship lead after a fantastic weekend at Snetterton, the Eurotech man claiming a third win of the season in a fierce second race along the way.
Jordan started the second half of the season 19 points behind championship leader Matt Neal on the eve of round six of the season, but ended it just nine adrift after a consistent weekend while his title rival had a tougher Sunday to contend with.
Jordan qualified fourth on the grid, dropping a place to Colin Turkington in race one on his way to fifth place, but it was an enthralling second race that saw Jordan come to the fore, the Pirtek Honda driver fighting his way by Gordon Shedden early in the race before disposing of Sam Tordoff with a late-braking move into Agostini.
Jordan put race leader Turkington under enormous pressure for many laps before finally spotting a gap inside the BMW man at Williams on lap 11, the Irishman trying the shut the door but losing out as Jordan squeezed his way by on the trail to claiming a third victory of his 2013 season in arguably the most exciting race of the year so far.
Jordan outscored Neal again as he took the flag seventh in race three, but much of the focus was on the Pirtek Racing man’s win in race two, Jordan commenting: “What a fantastic race. I thought we could win that and it is a great result for Pirtek Racing. Colin was defending very well, but I got under him and he tried to close me down.
“I could see that I was starting to gap them, but I knew I would if I could get clear of Colin and have a little bit of breathing space then I could get back into the rhythm and get the laps ticking away.”
The move on Shedden in that encounter saw Jordan leave Snetterton £500 lighter and carrying two penalty points as one of the day’s numerous incidents stewards pondered over during the day, but the win sees Jordan now close to just nine points behind series leader Neal, sending out a stern message to his rivals that he is firmly in contention for the 2013 title.
“Any win is important. That is really, really good for our championship campaign”, concluded Jordan, who now heads to Knockhill on August 24-25 looking to grab the series lead away from his Honda rival.
“I’m very pleased with a good result at a circuit where we didn’t expect to be that strong”.
