Andrew Jordan has won the final race of the day at Rockingham with a lights to flag victory after starting from the reverse grid pole.
Adam Morgan of Ciceley Motorsport was his only challenger in the early laps but Jordan eventually pulled away. A safety car period bunched them up again but when the green flags came out Jordan was again able to pull away eventually winning by over 1.7 seconds.
“You never give up,” said a very happy Jordan. “From 18th yesterday you’d never have thought you could sneak a win out of it. My attitude’s been to do my best and see what I can go and do. What a cracking job the BMW Pirtek Racing guys have done. They’ve had a tough couple of meetings this side of the garage so this result is for them.
“I knew they’d be really racy behind me early on. I was driving in my mirrors for a bit. I knew eventually that Adam [Morgan] would take the edge off his front tyres and we could pull out a bit of a gap. I thought back to Snetterton once I was out there though and it’s never in the bag, but once I got a gap I knew for the restart if I could do the same, it’d be job done.”
Morgan easily maintained second place to score his best finish of the day;
“I’m chuffed to bits for the team, it was a far harder race than it might have looked. As soon as the safety car came in, my front tyres just weren’t there and I had Jason (Plato) all over me. It’s great to be back on the podium and hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come in the next couple of weekends. The pace we had today is the pace we’ve had over the last four weekends. Things just haven’t gone our way, but that’s motorsport. We’re here to enjoy it – I had second in my head and that’s what I wanted.”
Jack Goff once again found himself fighting for a podium but once again luck wasn’t on his side. After a fierce battle with Rob Collard, the two made contact sending Collard out of the race. Unfortunately for Goff, while this was happening, Plato had sneaked through into third. Plato was happy to finally make the podium at the event;
“The car’s great,” confirmed Plato. “We’ve had a great day – a brilliant day for the team. James’ win early on was epic and for Ash (Sutton) to get another win and a podium was perfect for him. We’ve got to do the best job we can for him until the end of the season. Ash represents our sponsors Adrian Flux, Subaru, Autoglym and all of our supporters. If I can’t win, the next best thing is for Ash to. We’re going to help him do that.”
Goff managed to not drop any further and finished fourth ahead of the two title contenders, Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington in fifth and Sixth. Collard and Shedden haven’t helped their chances with their results this weekend although Shedden claimed points for twelfth in this round. Ingram, who had been a title contender, managed to salvage something out of a disastrous weekend with an eighth place in this race. He is losing touch of the main title battle now but is still a strong contender for the independents title.
Just in front of Ingram in seventh was Senna Proctor who yet again won the Jack Sears trophy for rookie drivers this weekend and looks set to claim the rookie title for 2017.
BTC Norlin completed a strong day for them with a ninth and tenth place finish for their two Chevrolet drivers Chris Smiley and Dave Newsham.
AMD Tuning’s Ollie Jackson picked up more points in eleventh with Shedden and Neal next up. Completing the points were Butcher and Jackson of Team Shredded Wheat.
Going into the penultimate round at Silverstone, Sutton leads the main title battle from Turkington and Shedden with Collard fourth. In the independents, Ingram leads from Goff and Jackson.
Full points and results are available from TSL timing.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Round 24 – Rockingham
1 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing 17 laps
2 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +1.724s
3 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +2.025s
4 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +5.214s
5 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +5.561s
6 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +5.908s
7 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +6.506s
8 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +6.786s
9 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +7.331s
10 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +7.775s
11 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +9.328s
12 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +9.621s
13 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +9.874s
14 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +10.285s
15 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +10.643s
16 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +10.980s
17 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +11.477s
18 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +11.836s
19 Michael EPPS (GBR) TAG Racing +12.151s
20 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +12.414s
21 Brett SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +14.412s
22 Stewart LINES (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +14.888s
23 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +1 lap
24 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +2 laps
DNF Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +3 laps
DNF Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +5 laps
DNF Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +5 laps
DNF Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +8 laps
DNF Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +14 laps
DNF James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +15 laps
DNF Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +16 laps
DNF Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +17 laps By Marc Waller
