Mat Jackson says that the additional weight and soft tyres will make defending his lead in the second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the day a much more difficult prospect.
The Motorbase Ford Focus ST driver made a perfect getaway from a third pole position in a row in the day’s opening race in Kent, dominating for a third victory of the season ahead of Team BMR‘s Aron Smith.
Speaking to TCF after the race, Jackson said: “Once again, we got a good start off the line and then had to survive two safety cars.
“It’s great to come away with the win again, but now we’ve got success ballast and the soft tyres so the game changes again.”
The result does however leave the Ford carrying 75kg of success ballast in the second race of the day, Jackson wary of his rivals including the quartet of championship contenders that will be trying to fight their way through the pack.
Jackson starts from pole position in race two also, adding: “[Weight] is going to hurt us – there’s no doubt about it. That’s why those sort of things have been put in the championship, to mix things up.
“All we can do is again get a good start, because I’m sure that the guys around us have got the pace.
“At least we’ve got the bonus of Aron carrying a bit of weight also, so we need to wait and see.”
With the championship fight potentially going on behind him, Jackson says that he will not factor them into his thoughts, concluding: “We’re in a race, so nobody wants to see anybody pull over and make it easy.
“We’re here to race and I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
