Croft race two winner Sam Tordoff was impressed by how well the West Surrey Racing BMW handled the additional penalty ballast, as the Leeds ace closes in on his Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship rivals.
The WSR man held onto his pole position advantage from the moment the lights went out, heading race one winner Andy Priaulx before the latter lost out to both Jason Plato and Colin Turkington on lap three.
Speaking to The Checkered Flag after his victory, Tordoff joked: “I decided I’d be brave and wear a pink crash helmet this weekend, and it’s paying off!
“I was a little bit frustrated by race one, but to be honest we scored good points so it’s not the end of the world. I was happy that we were on pole so that we could do it all over again in race two.”
Tordoff’s concern prior to the second encounter was just how the BMW would handle the additional success ballast, but afterwards had only positive feedback to give on the subject, saying: “The unknown was obviously the weight and how it was going to affect us.
“As the race transpired, I didn’t have to really push to the max. Jason getting past Andy helped but in the end I was comfortable not having to look after the tyres too much considering we were carrying all that weight.
“It’s never easy, but the thing is it allowed me to run at my own pace. The minute you are battling with people, you’re working the car and working the tyre, so it shows that we’ve got good pace carrying weight.”
Now 27 points adrift of series leader, Gordon Shedden, Tordoff moves up to fifth place in the championship battle.
Tordoff admits that his slow start made him a title outsider initially, but that he now has the opportunity to get back into the championship fight, saying: “I still regard myself as a bit of an outside shot for the title. After a bit of a slow start, we’re gathering momentum now and scoring big points. It’s key that we do that when we come to places like this.”
Tordoff starts race three from sixth on the grid, while team-mate Rob Collard will start from pole position.
