Andrew Jordan has pole position on his mind after topping the opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship free practice session at Thruxton.
The Motorbase Performance driver, who has claimed pole position at this circuit three times in his BTCC career, topped the day’s opening practice session with a time of 1m16.814s in the 40-minute outing.
Although still a way off his lap record at Thruxton of 1m16.192s from 2014, Jordan expects to be in the running for his first pole position in Motorbase colours this afternoon.
“It’s a good way to start the weekend”, Jordan told The Checkered Flag after first practice. “The car felt good; it was a bit of a cautious lap actually as it was only my first flying lap.
“The pace felt good. I did a 16.8 during FP1 in 2014, so we’re sort of in the ballpark of where we need to be. It’s all good. The championship starts here for us. The aim is to get pole position but I’m sure we’ll find ourselves up the sharp end.”
The abrasive Thruxton circuit is one that increases the risk of punctures, something that Jordan is aware of as he focuses on avoiding a similar fate to his 2013 race one setback during this weekend’s visit.
Five punctures hit drivers in first practice, Jordan adding: “We’re going to work on a race set-up because of how hot it is here. You’ve got to be on the ball by looking after the front tyres as a driver and also finding the right set-up.
“I’m not sure why it was so far off [the lap record] last year. I don’t necessarily think the times will get that much quicker with the heat coming up.”
Thruxton is a place that Jordan has only taken one BTCC career victory at, although it remains a strip of tarmac he thoroughly enjoys.
“It’s the first time we’ve really rolled a car out knowing we can just fine tune it for the circuit”, he added.
“We’ve done a fair bit of work at the test day which we carried out. It was a really impressive test with what we found and what we worked on. It’s a long weekend here and Saturday is is such a small percentage of it.
“We’ve got to get through three races without getting punctures. It’s almost like scoring double points here because it’s so easy to get a non-finish.”
