Airwaves Racing got their championship challenge back on track last weekend with victory in race two of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Having arrived at the Fife circuit on the crest of a wave after a successful weekend at Snetterton earlier in the month, the Motorbase-run outfit further stamped its mark on the championship with Mat Jackson claiming the squad’s first win of the season in ‘The Gary B’ Mountune-powered Ford Focus ST.

In-between torrential showers Saturday’s qualifying session produced an interesting set of results for the Airwaves drivers. Racing against the inclement weather, Mat secured a strong P7 for Sunday’s opening race. Unfortunately, Fabrizio’s posted time was removed due to an infringement and the Italian had to contend with P19.

Sunday’s first race opened up well for both Airwaves drivers as Mat and Fabrizio cleanly worked their way through the tightly packed field. Despite coming under constant pressure from a charging Turkington in the BMW as the duo battled for position with Plato’s MG, Mat pressed forward pushing former BTCC champion Shedden hard to bring the #6 Focus home in fourth, narrowly missing out on podium finish. Further down the pack, Fabrizio managed to carefully make his way through the drama and traffic to cross the line in a solid P13.

The decision to run both Airwaves cars on the soft compound Dunlop tyre proved a prudent move during another frenetic action-packed race two. With the leading order embroiled in a tangle during the opening lap, Mat took full advantage to close the gap on race leader Matt Neal. As the Airwaves man prepared to mount his challenge on the Honda, Neal was given a drive through penalty thus handing the lead position to Mat.

The number six Focus remained untroubled for the remainder of the race and the Airwaves Racing team was rewarded with a long overdue maiden race win of the season with a commanding 1.6 second lead. Fabrizio had an epic battle of his own sandwiched between the two WSR BMW’s of Turkington and Collard for the majority of the race and the number seven Focus ended in a respectable ninth.

Speaking after an excellent race weekend, Jackson said: “We’ve had a bit of a lean spell and come very close a number of times so to finally round it off with a win in race two, and a convincing win at that, is mega. Overall we’re very happy.  The team have done an awesome job with the car; it’s been fantastic all weekend.

“I’m very much looking forward to getting to Rockingham and getting back into the top four of the championship. We’re close now, we’ve just got to be consistent and keep plugging away. The car seems to be in a good window at the moment so hopefully we’ll move forward again at Rockingham and be in a good place for more wins. That’s what we’ve got to target now.”

The final race of the day looked set to deliver another set of strong results for Airwaves Racing with Fabrizio and Mat placed in second and tenth following the reversed grid draw. Disappointingly, the results didn’t go the team’s way with both Airwaves cars suffering unavoidable race damage that impacted significantly on the duo’s progress.

After what looked to be a likely podium finish, Fabrizio came under some heavy on track contact that saw the double BTCC champion drop down the order before an almighty shunt from Matt Neal forced the number six Focus back into the pits to record a DNF. Mat struggled through the last half of the race with a straight line speed issue caused by damage to the number seven Focus sustained in the early laps. Added to the 45kg of success ballast that Focus had on board, the 32 year old could only manage to secure a P17 finish.

It was a bit of a frustrating weekend for Giovanardi, he said: “I think I was in the wrong position on the wrong tyres for the last race, with everyone around me on the soft tyre. I had a good start to the race and was trying to overtake Foster but then Collard came inside quite hard at the hairpin and made big contact.

“After that moment I really found it difficult to stop the cars coming through. So after that I don’t know if we had a problem with the car, but the other cars were just overtaking me so easily. Then Matt Neal hit my rear wheel and it was game over. It was a very hard last race. The car was really good in the second race but obviously starting at the back at Knockhill is always hard.”

The weekend also brought further cause for celebration for David Bartrum’s Kent based squad with customer team AMD celebrating their first podium in the Motorbase built Ford Focus ST. Inverness based AMD driver Dave Newsham delighted the home crowd with two top ten finishes and a further podium in the final race of the day.

With Mat Jackson being the second highest points scorer of the weekend, the results see the Airwaves man move into second place in the Independents drivers’ standings and sixth overall. A healthy haul of points also means Airwaves Racing maintains its fourth place position in the overall teams’ whilst moving up into second in the Independent teams’ standings.

The championship now has a short two week break before reconvening at Rockingham for round 8 on September 6/7.

Pictures supplied by PSP Images.