BTCC battle heads for Donington

There may have been new teams, new drivers and new cars on track when the 2014 BTCC season roared into life at Brands Hatch last month but one thing hadn’t changed.

The action on track was as hot as ever…

With a bumper field of 30 cars on track around the short Indy circuit, the first three races of the season showed that the fight for the title this season is set to be one of the most hotly contested there has been for some time, with seven champions amongst those seeking to challenge for top honours.

Heading to Donington Park this weekend however, it is a familiar name who leads the way in the shape of Andrew Jordan, who kick-started the defence of the title he won in dramatic fashion last year with a double victory in Kent.

Having worked hard over the winter to refine his Honda Civic, the Pirtek Racing was able to put his car on pole position for the season opener and then survived a slide at Paddock Hill Bend to take a lights-to-flag win the first race of the year; a feat he then repeated in race two.

While things didn’t go to plan in race three, where he finished outside the top ten, it is Jordan who therefore goes into his home event on top of the pile in the standings.

“To come come out of the [Brands Hatch] weekend with pole, two wins and the championship lead is a very, very good start to the season,” he said. “Now, I can’t wait for Donington! I love it there – it’s a classic circuit that’s really fast and flowing, plus of course it’s my home event. The people there are doing a great job improving the circuit and the fans love it too. If I was watching I would park myself on a deckchair down at the Craner Curves as it’s simply like no other place in the country.”

Jordan’s current lead is just two points ahead of Matt Neal, who sprung something of a surprise by putting the works Honda Civic Tourer onto the podium first time out – taking third in race two and then following it up with a second place finish in race three.

His result in race two marked the first time that an estate had finished on the BTCC podium, with Volvo failing to achieve the feat when it ran the iconic 850 Estate back in 1994.

While the Tourer impressed at Brands Hatch, the high-speed sweeps at Donington are expected to be more suited to the car and Neal – and team-mate Gordon Shedden – will both seek to secure the accolade of becoming the first man to win in the series with an estate model.

Although the three Honda men are right at the sharp end of the points standings, in amongst them is the BMW of Colin Turkington – with the eBay Motors man having been the winner of race three at Brands Hatch.

Twelve months on from the debut for the new 1 Series last year, Turkington – and team-mates Rob Collard and Nick Foster – was in the mix all weekend and could well have been the championship leader coming out of it had it not been a damaged trackrod in the first race.

A winner at Donington last year – the first success of his comeback – Turkington returns to the circuit stronger this time around with WSR Having worked hard over the winter to improve the drivability of the rear-wheel drive car, something he will hope to make the most of in the next three rounds of the campaign.

Outside the top four, MG ace Jason Plato was another man who could have ended the Brands Hatch weekend leading the championship had it not been for a mechanical issue that forced him to restart the car as the lights went out to start the second race of the weekend.

Despite that, he sits less than ten points off the early points lead and will aim to end his current winless streak at Donington – and also avoid a repeat of some of the incidents he has endured in recent years.

Behind Plato, Rob Collard stands a good chance of ending a winless streak that goes back to Knockhill 2012 after his own solid start at Brands, while Adam Morgan will be keen to show the potential of the WIX Racing Mercedes and add to the points he secured in the season opener.

Sam Tordoff, Rob Austin, Mat Jackson and former champions Alain Menu and Fabrizio Giovanardi are amongst the other drivers who will hope to push for at least a place on the podium, although it won’t be easy with the BTCC set to see its biggest grid for some time.

After 30 cars lined up for the opening three races at Brands, 31 should race this weekend with Dan Welch expected to make his seasonal bow in the second STP Racing Proton Gen-2.

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