Wrotham based Motorbase Performance showed that they were on the pace from the off as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship got underway at Brands Hatch.

The team at their local track secured fourth top eight finishes in the three races across the opening weekend on the Indy circuit.

Mixed results for the Motorbase squad during Saturday’s free practice and qualifying sessions saw Mat Jackson and Andrew Jordan qualify in P9 and P14 respectively with changing weather conditions and heavy traffic interrupting the duo’s best chances of setting a fast lap on the short Indy layout.

A frenetic opening race to the 2016 season delivered the first double points finish of the weekend in front of a bumper home crowd. Jackson defended his position well despite a brief off-track moment and the #7 Focus ST managed to gain a spot to eventually cross the line in 8^th. Jordan had a tougher battle on his hands after heavy contact on the opening lap and with the #77 Focus struggling with an engine power issue, the Red Bull athlete did well to fight his way through into P11.    

Both Jackson and Jordan got a strong start off the line in race 2 working their way up through the field in the opening laps. Making good use of the safety car deployment in lap 3, the new team-mates delivered a textbook performance as they closed in on leading pack. With Jordan’s lighter Focus moving ahead of Jackson’s ballasted ST, the pair mounted a synchronised challenge on the MG’s – taking first Sutton before moving in on Cook to steal past with an impressive double move to take 4^th and 5^th place spots, adding to the Motorbase squad’s opening race points tally.

Starting in P5 and P6 following the reversed grid draw, Jackson and Jordan charged off the line straight into the thick of the action with Jackson slotting into 3^rd place. Unfortunately slight contact between the two Fords as they headed down Paddock Hill forced the Pirtek Racing Focus into a huge slide and despite a remarkable recovery by Jordan, team-mate Jackson was forced into the pits with a puncture.

Jordan continued his challenge from 5^th before entertaining the crowd with an epic final charge, snatching a weekend-best 4^th place finish from Neal’s Honda Type R by just 0.037s as the two raced to the line.

Speaking after his debut weekend with the team Jordan said: “Qualifying was obviously disappointing and then having an issue in race 1 hampered our results but from there we managed to turn it around to get two fourths and some good points. In general it started off not that great a weekend but actually came good today and I think if we hadn’t have had the issue in race 1 then we would have had three decent results and possibly a podium.

“We’re not quite there on the ultimate pace with the car but we’re moving in the right way and we have a plan to work to heading to Donington.”

Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk