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Had ups, had downs, need consistency |
In his third exclusive column of 2008 for Crash.net, British Touring Car Championship front-runner Mat Jackson looks back over a rollercoaster ride at Croft in Yorkshire last time out, and ahead to this weekend's action at Snetterton in Norfolk, as he bids to keep his championship bid on-track...
Qualifying at Croft was very, very close – there were only a few tenths in it – and we felt we caught a bit of traffic, which cost us a shot at pole. Going into race one, though, we started seventh, got a blinding start, got up to second and then eventually got into the lead before it got red-flagged.
Unfortunately they put the race order back a lap, so we were second for the re-start, but with the BMW's rear wheel-drive we got another great start, got past Gordon Shedden in the Honda and then unfortunately we just aquaplaned off when we got to Tower. It was a short-lived lead, and when the race got red-flagged for a second time we were down in 18th.
I think it's a view held by a lot of the drivers that the conditions out there were atrocious, and that in some ways the race shouldn't have been run. It was too wet; literally in a straight line the car went sideways, and we had a big tank-slapper coming into the braking zone. Unfortunately from there it was all over and we aquaplaned straight off at Tower. There was so much standing water that the race lasted another half a lap and then they red-flagged it again.
It's unfortunate, but it's difficult for the championship to call a race like that. It was difficult for everybody – just as awkward for them as it was for us. Obviously we were one of the losers out of it, so my feelings are pretty simple.
It would have been nice if they had gone back to the results at the end of the first part of the race, or even awarded points on a qualifying basis. Then it's fair, but the decision was made and we went into race two, moved on, got our heads down and focussed on having a good result in that one.
We actually thought we were going to start from the pit-lane – we were debating that just to try and stay out of any first lap carnage. It was a last minute call, but we said 'no, let's stick with it and go from the grid, and if we get wiped out in someone else's accident then so be it'.
We got the car hooked up – we'd been trying a lot of things with it – I got my head around it in the rain as well, and we hit some form. To come from 18th to second was fantastic; it was a shame we didn't have one more lap, because I think we'd certainly have had Colin Turkington too.
Coming through the complex for the last time Colin had a big oversteer moment, and it was looking for a moment like he was going to lose control – I was kinda hoping he would! Unfortunately he got it together again and there just weren't enough corners and time left in the race to pounce. Still, to come through and pick up the result we did was awesome.
