Mat Jackson visited the podium twice for Motorbase Performance in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s seventh meeting of the season at Knockhill.
The 2008 runner-up was a consistent front-runner all weekend in Scotland, denied pole position on Saturday by West Surrey Racing but taking the fight to the BMW squad a day later.
Jackson took less than a lap to dispose of Sam Tordoff and Andy Priaulx in race one, leading for over 20 laps before his hard-fought defence was broken by the third WSR car of Rob Collard, Jackson fending off Priaulx’s best efforts for second spot.
Another podium followed in race two, the day ending with ninth place in a battling third encounter.
“To come away from this weekend with two podiums is fantastic and a great result for the team”, Jackson said after a productive weekend in Scotland that put him up already into 15th in the championship after six races.
“It was frustrating to have lost out on pole in qualifying but I think we’ve shown that we can mix it at the front now and that we’re on the pace.”
The return for Motorbase brings with it a new chapter potentially for the Kent squad, bringing in EcoBoost technology and a raft of updates to the Focus ST that the team intend to launch a title attack with in 2016.
Jackson has already stated that victories are the only target on the team’s radar in the final three meetings of 2015, expecting to make further strides in performance at Rockingham over 5/6 Spetember.
He added: “It’s been such a big learning curve for us and after being out of it for six months we’re really pleased.
“We need to sit down and look at the data ahead of Rockingham and see where we can improve. We’ve made a big step forward this weekend from Snetterton and hopefully we can do it again.”
