Triple Eight Race Engineering boss Ian Harrison lamented the driving standards of some his squad’s opposition during a battling second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting of 2015 at Donington Park.
Harrison overlooked his team’s 500th BTCC race in the opening encounter on Sunday from the Leicester circuit, the day ending with a visit to the podium for driver Andrew Jordan in a race that saw the MG man and team-mate Jack Goff in the thick of the action, which at times became somewhat bruising.
While Goff was removed from the final race in an unfortunate incident with Sam Tordoff, the works MG squad were in contention for victory with Jordan, but contact at McLeans with ultimate winner and series leader, Matt Neal, proved costly as Jordan finished less than 0.2s adrift of success.
An initial protest against the Honda man failed, although the team have appealed and will hear a final verdict on the incident at Thruxton (9/10 May).
“We can take a lot of positives from this weekend even if the results may look average“, said Harrison on his outfit’s Donington Park visit, insisting that the team’s progress since Brands Hatch has been very positive.
“The engineers have worked hard to give the drivers a good set up on the soft tyres, which is a novelty for our team to be honest. We need to keep pushing the set up, especially in qualifying trim. Overall, there has been good progress on that front.
“While our 500th race is a landmark achievement, the focus is most certainly on building our momentum for the current season. You don’t win races by looking backwards.”
A dramatic final race kept the attentions of onlookers and those behind the wheel, although the Triple Eight boss was more concerned about the actions of those on track as 10 drivers were handed penalties of varying severity across the weekend.
“On track, some of the driving standards, from drivers representing both ends of the field were, frankly, rubbish. However due to on-going judiciary proceedings, that is all I can say for now on this subject.”
MG fell behind Honda at the top of the Manufacturers’ Championship, but sit just 13 points adrift of their main rivals.
