Wrotham based Airwaves racing struggled in qualifying for the opening round of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch on Saturday afternoon.
On an afternoon where they struggled to find the right set-up to allow their drivers Mat Jackson and Aron Smith to compete at the front end of the grid.
They have it all to do in Sunday’s three races, as Jackson could only manage 12th place with his team mate Smith two places behind him on the grid. With the amount of incidents and racing in a touring car race a good performance in the race is certainly not out of the question.
It is something of a surprise that Andrew Jordan took pole position for just the third time in his career then, ahead of the much fancied Gordon Sheddon.
However when you look at the practice times from the morning sessions Jordan posted the fastest time and was always going to give the more experienced drivers in the field a run for their money in the qualifying session.
With former Champion Jason Plato qualifying in third place, and old rival Matt Neal just behind him on the grid, the start of the opening race of the season
All three races will be broadcast live on ITV4 so if you aren’t going to Brands Hatch to watch then be sure to tune in and watch what is sure to be fantastic entertainment for all.
In the Jack Sears Trophy Liam Griffin starts in 18th place for the Addison Lee Motorbase team in last year’s S2000. He is three places behind Lea Wood who leads the qualification in that class with an impressive 16th place.
After an off and then being crashed into by Jack Goff, the returning Colin Turkington starts from the back of the grid, he could be one to watch out for as he tries to carve his way through the field and into a points scoring position.
The first points of the season have actually already gone to Jordan as he scores a point for taking pole position.
Speaking after qualifying, he said: “Andrew Jordan said: “It’s nice to qualify on pole, obviously it’s the only time that everyone will have no ballast so it’s a complete level playing field.
“We’ve been quick in testing, and earlier today we did a race run and the pace was really good then as well. That was really the easy part though – tomorrow’s the hard part. We’ve got a lot of work still to do, but we’ve started in the right place.”
The Top Six will line-up as below:
- Andrew Jordan – Pirtek Honda
- Gordon Sheddon – Honda Yuasa Racing
- Jason Plato – MG KX Momentum Racing
- Matt Neal – Honda Yuasa Racing
- Sam Tordoff – MG KX Momentum Racing
- Dave Newsham – Speedworks Motorsport