Motorbase Performance made their return to the podium at the latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill.
It underlines the performance of the team who were taking part in only their second round of the season following a hiatus from the first half of the season.
Veteran Mat Jackson was the man to put the Ford Focus on the podium in races one and two as well as claiming a top ten finish in race three.
Starting in the midst of a BMW 1-2-4 for Sunday’s opening race, Jackson made his trademark charge off the line moving past Tordoff to take second before setting his sights on race leader Priaulx. Passing the #111 BMW as the pair headed into the hairpin, Jackson settled into the race lead and had built up an impressive 2.7 gap by lap 6. Unfortunately a safety car deployment allowed the field to close in on the #4 Focus and despite an outstanding defensive drive; Jackson eventually had to relinquish the lead – crossing the line in P2 to claim his first podium of the season.
Having set the fastest lap during the opening race, Jackson started race 2 in pole position. However, with 66kg of ballast on-board, the #4 Focus came under immediate pressure from a charging Shedden. Jackson managed to hold off the lighter Honda for five closely fought laps before eventually dropping back into second place. Fighting off Austin’s Audi, Jackson managed to hold his position right up until lap 25 before a late move from Collard saw the Focus drop back into third place, rewarding Jackson with his second podium visit of the day.
With the reversed grid draw placing #4 Focus in P8 for race 3, Jackson had a tough task ahead of him with 57kg on-board. Chasing Jordan for the opening laps, Jackson continued his fine form into the weekend’s final race with another display of his first-rate race-craft as he fought off challenges from Collard, Shedden and Newsham throughout the frenetic race, ultimately securing a ninth place finish and his third point scoring finish of the weekend.
The weekend proved tough for Jackson’s team-mate James Cole, with the 27 year-old struggling to get to grips with his new drive on the challenging Knockhill circuit. Despite showing encouraging pace during the weekend, Cole finished just outside the points scoring positions with a best-placed finish of P17.
Speaking after the weekend, Jackson said: “To come away from this weekend with two podiums is fantastic and a great result for the team. It was frustrating to have lost out on pole in qualifying but I think we’ve shown that we can mix it at the front now and that we’re on the pace.
“It’s been such a big learning curve for us and after being out of it for six months we’re really pleased. We need to sit down and look at the data ahead of Rockingham and see where we can improve. We’ve made a big step forward this weekend from Snetterton and hopefully we can do it again.”
Images courtesy of Jakob Ebery