Round 1 – Brands Hatch: Jordan and Turkington share wins
- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 12 months ago by
.
- Posts
Jason Plato led the opening practice session of the 2014 BTCC season ahead of Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan.
The main story of FP1 however was a WSR mechanic falling over in the pitlane and hurting himself, bringing out a red flag while the medical team assisted him. No news I’m aware of so far but hope he’s ok.
Plato also went quickest in the second session ahead of Jack Goff.
Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan has taken the first pole position of the 2014 BTCC season by pipping MG’s Jason Plato by just 0.012 of a second. In a close session featuring 29 of the 31 confirmed cars (Chris Stockton never made it out of the garage and Daniel Welch’s car isn’t ready) the top 23 drivers were incredibly separated by just over eight tenths of a second!
The session kicked off as usual with the cars filing out of the pitlane one by one in team order, however due to the shortness of the lap Jordan had already made it back to the start finish line before the train of cars had finished leaving the pits. The rear wheel driven eBay Motors BMW’s and Rob Austin Racing Audi’s initially took the top spots – as is usual as they don’t have to heat their tyres as much as the front wheel drive cars – before Jack Clarke – driving for the Motorbase prepared Crabbie’s Racing (yes, that is same Crabbies that produce the ginger beer) – spun at Surtees bringing out a yellow flag before trying to find a gap in the endless stream of cars to pull back onto the circuit.
As the front wheel drive cars started to get faster there was another off in the form of Rotek Racing American driver Robb Holland, who spun at Paddock Hill bend. Honda’s Matt Neal then went top but he was soon pipped by practice pace setter Plato. Plato then improved again before Speedworks’ Tom Ingram rand wide at Paddock Hill and tiptoed through the gravel. eBay Motors Colin Turkington then improved to go third before Jordan pipped Plato to the first pole of 2014.
Matt Neal finished fourth with teammate Gordon Shedden behind in fifth while debutant Tom Ingram pulled a stunning lap out of the bag to go sixth. New team Chrome Edition Restart – fielding Aron Smith and ex-Champion Alain Menu – finished an impressive seventh and eighth – with Smith ahead – while Mat Jackson – driving for Airwaves Racing – and Rob Collard – eBay Motors – rounded out the top ten. The seventh Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi suffered a tough session down in eighteenth place, despite only being 0.656 off of pole.
Full Results:
1. Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing – Honda Civic) – 48.228
2. Jason Plato (MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save – MG6 GT) – 48.240
3. Colin Turkington (eBay Motors – BMW 125i M Sport) – 48.298
4. Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing – Honda Civic Tourer) – 48.321
5. Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa Racing – Honda Civic Tourer) – 48.321
6. Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis) – 48.371
7. Aron Smith (CHROME Edition Restart Racing – Volkswagen CC) – 48.404
8. Alain Menu (CHROME Edition Restart Racing – Volkswagen CC) – 48.419
9. Mat Jackson (Airwaves Racing – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 48.447
10. Rob Collard (eBay Motors – BMW 125i M Sport) – 48.479
11. Rob Austin (Exocet Racing – Audi A4) – 48.487
12. Sam Tordoff (MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save – MG6 GT) – 48.506
13. Nick Foster (eBay Motors – BMW 125i M Sport) – 48.542
14. Adam Morgan (WIX Racing – Mercedes-Benz A-Class) – 48.590
15. Jack Goff (RCIB Insurance Racing – Vauxhall Insignia) – 48.696
16. Marc Hynes (Quantel Bifold Racing – MG6 GT) – 48.701
17. Martin Depper (Pirtek Racing – Honda Civic) – 48.842
18. Fabrizio Giovanardi (Airwaves Racing – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 48.884
19. James Cole (United Autosports – Toyota Avensis) – 48.921
20. Dave Newsham (AmD Tuning.com – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 48.936
21. Hunter Abbott (AlcoSense Breathalysers Racing – Audi A4) – 49.001
22. Warren Scott (CHROME Edition Restart Racing – Vauxhall Insignia) – 49.034
23. Glynn Geddie (United Autosports – Toyota Avensis) – 49.053
24. Lea Wood (Houseman Racing – Toyota Avensis) – 49.479
25. Simon Belcher (Handy Motorsport – Toyota Avensis) – 49.733
26. Jack Clarke (Crabbie’s Racing – Ford Focus ST Mk.III) – 49.767
27. Aiden Moffat (Laser Tools Racing – Chevrolet Cruze 4dr) – 50.242
28. Robb Holland (Rotek Racing – Audi S3 Saloon) – 50.369
29. Ollie Jackson (STP Racing with Sopp & Sopp – Proton Persona) – 50.487
30. Chris Stockton (Power Maxed Racing – Chevrolet Cruze 5dr) – No TimeI finally got to catch all 3 races. I still don’t know who my favorite driver is, but that was a good day of racing at Brands from what I saw. Jordan looked terrific in Race 2, and Turkington, Plato and Menu really shined in race 3 making progress up the field.
For anyone who was following this, apologies for not getting any race reports or other news up yesterday. Given it was mothers day I didn’t really have any time, sorry! Next race I will (hopefully) be able to keep anyone who is interested up to date!
I had a great weekend at Brands, there some great racing but at the time I couldn’t understand what was going on behind the safety car in race 2 (?) with Jackson, Smith and Goff. Also really glad to see Menu and Giovanardi back. I had a funny and perhaps slightly awkward moment on Sunday morning when I got in the lift at the hotel and Aron Smith got in on the next floor.
Looking forward to Donington, might try and go if I’m not working.
Now I finally got to see the round last night and I think race 3 was spectacular, while race 2 was tense (race 1, nothing special).
I was particulary impressed with Matt Neal and Colin Turkington – I feel like they were the only front-runners who didn’t put a wheel wrong all day.
Turkington’s passes into Paddock were just pure pleasure to watch, how he measured his braking points over that bump at the pit exit and how he modulated his pace to dictate acceleration past the apex making cutbacks towards Druids impossible. On the other hand, I was wondered how everybody bar Shedden in race 2 left the door open for him there.
Plato was also extremely good barring his bogging-down at the start of race 2.
I personally root for Shedden and I liked how he deliberately stayed out of trouble all the time, carrying home a good haul of points in the process. I think his front camera view at the start of race 2 down Paddock Hill Bend, when Collard and Neal flashed past ahead of him from left to right, will quickly make it into highlights and intros.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.