BMW Pirtek Racing and Andrew Jordan resume their challenge for the British Touring Car Championship this weekend at Thruxton after a heroic effort to rebuild the team’s 330i M Sport.
Andrew was an innocent victim in a multi-car incident on the opening lap of Race One at Donington Park three weeks ago that put him in hospital and removed his BMW from competition for the rest of the day.
Despite the extent of the damage, the 3 Series has been repaired thanks to sterling work from WPMS and the WSR team. Andrew is now fully recovered and raring to go.
Andrew secured pole position three years in a row at the Hampshire speedbowl, which is the UK’s fastest circuit with average speeds of over 111mph in qualifying, from 2012-14, and has two wins and nine podiums there in his BTCC career.
The circuit was also the scene of BMW’s 100th BTCC victory in 2017 as WSR cars scored a double victory there.
The Thruxton triple-header on May 18-19 is the third of 10 events in this year’s BTCC, which takes in eight circuits the length and breadth of the country. Each race will be screened live and exclusively on ITV4 in HD.
Andrew Jordan said: “I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel at Thruxton and racing again. After getting the win at Brands Hatch, Donington was a big opportunity to score big, and seeing what [WSR stablemate] Colin [Turkington, of Team BMW] managed with two wins, I know the accident has cost us a lot of points. The fact that I was released from hospital quickly enough to come back to the track to support the team for the remaining races that day is down to the strength and safety of the BMW. It’s behind us now and we head to Thruxton aiming to win again and to start clawing back the points.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal, said: “The fact that we’ll be at Thruxton at all is a minor miracle, given the extent of the damage sustained by AJ’s car at Donington. But we’ll be there and that’s down to an incredible effort by everybody involved with running the car. In particular, I’d like to thank Willie Poole at WPMS Motorsport for the work they’ve done on the chassis and the staff at WSR. I say quite often that they’re the best in this championship, but occasions like this, where you really need everyone to pull together as one unit, just backs up that opinion. We aim to reward everyone’s hard work with a strong set of results this weekend.”
Image credits: JEP/BMW