Andrew Jordan: It’s time to get my elbows out

Colin [Turkington, WSR teammate] was running with 18kg more than he did four months ago. Colin went seven tenths slower than he was in May, so those extra 18kg equated to approximately four tenths of a second, which makes a huge difference in the BTCC now.

Obviously, that’s why TOCA implements success ballast, and it’s going to provide the close finish at Brands in October, with about four or five people fighting for the title.

I hadn’t been particularly happy with the balance throughout practice, both Colin and I were experiencing the same problems across the morning – if you heard my conversation with my engineers and then heard Colin’s, you’d think we were talking about the same car.

Nothing felt right, and nothing seemed to work when we tried to improve the balance across the two sessions. We were suffering from low speed oversteer and high speed understeer, the perfect storm around Thruxton, so it was really difficult for the guys to try and dial out.

I didn’t get a clear run for my first run in qualifying, and ended up sitting in about 19^th going into my last run, when I got the call you never want to hear: “You need to find half a second to get in to the top ten.” Great.

In the end I found a few tenths and ended up in 13^th, just two hundredths off Colin in 11^th. To put it into perspective, that was just half a second behind Tordoff on pole, with the top twenty all within a second of each other.

I had a really good start to race one and ended up running door-to-door with Colin for position, the first time we’ve really had a chance to properly race each other this year. It stressed the team a little, but it was great to go elbows-out with one of the best on the grid. We gave each other room and it was a good, fair fight. I crossed the line in 12^th at the chequered flag, with Colin right behind me in 13^th.

Obviously it’s great to finish in front of Colin to try and claw back some points in the championship standings, but it was quite frustrating that it was just the one position ahead of him…

We were just pushing as fast as we could, and were hoping that removing the weight would have a big effect, while trying everything we could to sort out the balance. Thruxton is all about getting a tow out of Church and a run into the chicane, but the understeer issues, which got even worse when running in the dirty air of traffic, meant I simply wasn’t able to do that.

Race two was a little less eventful, but we came across the line in seventh, while Colin was back in ninth – more points on the board, but while everyone was focusing on myself and Colin, Josh Cook and Dan Cammish were racking up some big points and closing in on the points.

I was praying for the reverse grid pole, which would have left Colin down in ninth with me at the front – unfortunately they only pulled out number six, so that plan went out of the window quite quickly!

I had a great start, up to about fourth on the run up to the complex, but then got heavy contact from Tom Ingram, which continued quite a long way around the lap, eventually dropping me down to 10^th place.

We asked TOCA to look at the footage but they said they wouldn’t look at it due to being on the first lap. If that’s the stance then it’s good to know, and I’ll get my elbows out and get stuck in on the first lap in future.

As the race went on we could see the rain coming, and when it came down it came down in a massive way. It was pretty scary, and if we’d run for just one more lap I reckon we’d have to have red flagged it… There’s super slippy tarmac around the circuit which the rain made treacherous through turn one, the complex and at Church, so all in the wrong places!

Ending the day in 10^th we came away having outscored Colin all weekend, but still sit 30 points behind in the standings. I wanted to come away 20 points back, so we’re not where we wanted to be. Equally, Cammish and Cook are now just four and eight points back from me respectively, so it’s by no means a two-horse race.

Looking ahead to Knockhill, which frustratingly clashes with the Revival, it’s all or nothing. I have to go there and take pole and win at least one race. It’s time to get the elbows out. I need some bad luck for Colin, but for me it’s now time to start taking risks. If I don’t the championship could start slipping away.

We should be strong at Knockhill as it favours the rear-wheel-drive cars, although, that said, Cammish has been strong there in the Honda. The weight isn’t going to help us either with the stop-start nature of the circuit and pulling up the hill.

I love going to Knockhill, it’s such a busy lap and you really have to grab the car by the scruff of the neck. But as I said, it’s elbows out, and time to start doing everything I can to reel Colin in.

Photography courtesy of Andrew Jordan, Jakob Ebrey and Motorsport Images.