Sam Tordoff hopes to extend his newly-acquired Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship lead when the series visits Croft in two weekends’ time, after a trio of rostrum visits at Oulton Park moved him to the top of the table.
A hat-trick of podium finishes rounded off a superb weekend in Cheshire for the West Surrey Racing driver, clinching his first win of the season in the second of three encounters alongside a brace of second place finishes.
The results moved Tordoff a point clear of Matt Neal at the head of the Drivers’ Championship, something that surprised even the BMW driver himself.
“I didn’t think that was quite possible”, Tordoff said to The Checkered Flag afterwards. “I thought race three was going to be a consolation for what had been a great weekend up to that point.
“But the waves just seemed to part for me. There were some moves at the hairpin that were a bit kamikaze and do-or-die, but some days it pays off for you.
“There are a few bold manouvres I have done today – like passing Colin in race two – which have made a big difference. They are the difference between winning and not.
“In the nine rounds before this weekend I’ve not felt like I’ve delivered and really shown what I’m capable of. But I knew it was in the locker and this weekend we’ve arrived.”
Tordoff next heads the field to Croft circuit for the fifth meeting of the season, a track he claimed pole position and race two success at last season on a massively strong weekend for WSR and BMW.
The series leader says that, even with 75kg of success ballast, a strong weekend is again expected for BMW, saying: “We’ve got our rewards today and we just need to manage that at Croft, which will be a great circuit for us. It’s massively a BMW circuit; we’ve been really successful there.
“With that in mind, I’m not overly worried about carrying 75kg into qualifying and race one. I still think we can go there and qualify in the top five.”
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