Ollie Jackson will return to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in 2016, after inking a deal to return to AmDTuning.com to race the team’s Audi S3.
Jackson first entered the BTCC scene back in 2011 when he raced a Vauxhall Astra for Triple Eight Race Engineering in two meetings in 2011, moving to the AmD squad a year later to pilot the team’s Volkswagen Golf in which he claimed three eighth place results.
A move to Speedworks Motorsport followed, before his most recent foray with Welch Motorsport proved a less fruitful campaign. The 31-year-old from Tamworth will now move back to Shaun Hollamby‘s AmD outfit for 2016, driving the Audi S3 which was recently revealed at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham.
On his return, Jackson said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be back on the touring car grid, especially with the guys at AmDTuning.com as my best season in the BTCC came with them back in 2012 with the Golf.
“If I’m being honest, I didn’t really think a BTCC return was on the cards this year and I was expecting to return to Ginettas again for a second season. However, I had a chat with Shaun and before you know it, we’d agreed a deal for me to race the Audi this year.
“My last season in the championship didn’t go to plan and is one I would rather forget, but I feel I’m coming back into the series in good shape and view this deal as a fresh start and an opportunity to show what I can do.
Ollie Jackson returns to AmD – a team he raced with in 2012 (Photo: btcc.net)
“There is no doubt that the Audi has a lot of potential, but we also have to be realistic in what is going to be a very strong field. I see no reason why we can’t challenge for points on a regular basis during the season and if we can also break into the top ten as we go along then I think we can be happy.”
Team boss Shaun Hollamby said he was pleased to bring his former driver back as the team embarks on a first full season running the Audi, which it campaigned in the second half of 2015.
“We had a lot of interest in the car for this season, particularly after people had chance to see it in the flesh in the new livery at the Autosport International show,” he said. “We’re pleased to have agreed a deal with Ollie to return the fold and are looking forward to resuming the relationship we enjoyed with him when he raced with our Golf.
“Ollie is a driver who comes back into the series with a point to prove after a tough year in 2014 and we are confident that we have a package that will allow him to show his true potential.
We showed the pace of the Audi in the second half of 2015 and with Ollie back in the team, we are confident of being able to regularly challenge for points during the year ahead.”
