Wrotham based Airwaves Racing had another memorable weekend in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

The Home of British Motorsport was once again kind to the Motorbase run squad as they picked up their second victory of the season.

Continuing the fine form shown throughout the season, the Motorbase-run squad showed flashes of brilliance during Sunday’s three races, with Mat Jackson taking a popular race win in the final race of the weekend preceded by third and fourth place finishes. With team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi securing seventh in race 2, the results marked Airwaves Racing’s most successful weekend of the season to date.

The weekend started well for Mat Jackson with the Airwaves man securing a second row start with a joint best qualifying result of P4 for Sunday’s opening race. Unfortunately it was a different tale for team-mate Fabrizio Giovanardi who after struggling to unlock the pace in his Mountune-powered Ford Focus ST, ended the session in P19.

Expectations were high in the team with Silverstone having been a happy hunting ground for the Motorbase Ford in recent years, and race 1 thankfully delivered. Mat’s blistering start off the line saw the Focus charge straight past Tordoff’s MG and slot into P3 as the pack headed into Copse. Mat then set his sights on closing the gap on the race leaders and battled Turkington hard for the second spot narrowly missing out to the WSR driver by just over a tenth of second to claim another welcome podium for the Airwaves Racing Focus and his fourth of the season. Fabrizio delivered a stunning drive from P19, storming through the pack to take 12^th as the flag dropped.

Race two was a slightly more subdued affair for Jackson’s Focus. With the combination of 27kg of ballast on board and running on the soft tyre, Mat defended hard under pressure from the charging pack to hold onto a notable P4 finish. Another epic drive from Fabrizio gave the double BTCC champion his opportunity to shine as he battled his way through past a raft of top seeded drivers to snatch a seventh place finish in the sister Focus ST.

With Crabbie’s Racing team-mate Jack Clarke putting Fabrizio on pole for the final race of the day it looked to be a case of third time lucky for the Italian; and with Mat’s 4^th place start effectively promoted to P3 after Tordoff’s MG was pushed off the grid, expectations were understandably high in the Airwaves camp.

A dramatic opening lap saw Mat charge up into 2^nd before the two Airwaves cars headed side by side to cross the start finish line with Jackson taking advantage to claim the race lead just as the safety car was deployed for an incident at the back of the pack. Mat got the jump at the restart with Fabrizio following his lead, and the Airwaves Ford’s held a close procession for the opening laps for a brief Motorbase 1-2. Mat once again put in a perfect performance with a truly professional drive to take the win and pilot the Focus across the line with a commanding 2.7 second lead.

Regrettably Fabrizio’s race failed to follow the same path with the Focus coming under relentless pressure from the following pack. After losing a place to Smith’s Passat, Fabrizio kept the Silverstone crowds entertained with a master-class in defending as he held off Turkington, Plato and Menu for the best part of the race. With less than six laps to go, Fabrizio once again found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as a shunt from Plato’s MG fired Turkington in the Focus, knocking the car momentarily sideways off the track and dropping Fabrizio down into P11.

Speaking after the weekends racing concluded a delighted, Jackson said: “It’s been a great weekend. To come here and get a win, a third and a fourth is fantastic. The last race was absolutely awesome and probably one of the best that I’ve ever had at Silverstone. It was just awesome.

“The car’s gone well again here again, the Focus seems to go well here and it’s a track that I like and it’s been good to us again this weekend. I’m delighted for the team to come here and the car’s been absolutely faultless once again. The pace has been in there and it was a dream to drive. Hopefully we can take that same car to Brands now and we’ll be back in the same position.”

After the weekend’s successes, Airwaves Racing now has a short two week turnaround before the squad’s home circuit of Brands Hatch plays host to the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season finale on October 11/12.

 

Pictures supplied by www.psp-images.co.uk