A podium finish to end the weekend at Oulton Park was a great result for Team Aircool.

It's really good as we plugged away at things during the weekend and the pace in the Leon wasn't too bad on race day. We made up a few places in each race and then going into the third one, I just tried to keep my nose clean as it can be so easy to make a mistake and get involved in things that you don't really want to get involved in. It was a tough day but it was so pleasing to come away with some good points, an Independent win and a second overall. I can't really knock it to have ended the weekend with those results.

On Saturday, Colin Turkington, Mat Jackson and myself had all lost about half a second between the practice sessions due to the change in temperature, but there were some other guys who gained time as well. That was partly why we ended up P9 on the grid in qualifying. On race day however, it was the same for everyone. You have to be the quickest person on the circuit to win of course, but we were always there or thereabouts in terms of the lap times and it allowed us to get some good results from the weekend.

After decent results in the first two races, the reverse grid for the final race put us on the second row of the grid. I then found myself battling with Mat Jackson to try and get into a podium position and it was a challenge, as the BMW is always strong.

It has strong engine performance and good straight-line speed and that is what we really lack with the Leon; aerodynamics and engine performance. It's the reason why we struggled at Snetterton and I have to admit that when I got past Mat, it was tough to keep him behind. You find yourself with one on the car ahead to try and find a way past, but then you also have an eye looking back to ensure that the chasing car can't get through. You just can't take your eye off the ball at all and you can't afford to make a mistake – as Andy showed when I got past into second.

It certainly wasn't easy to get Andy though before he made the error. At times I would catch up with him but then I was under pressure myself from the guys behind and he would get away again. However, he made a few mistakes and I was able to close up again, and when the chance came, I took it. It was always going to happen that if a gap appeared, I would go for it. As soon as I got in front of Andy, I knew that was it and I could secure second as I was aware that things would kick off behind and effectively hand me the position.

As a team, we are always pleased to get a result, but it is good to get the result after Snetterton when we had no pace on the race day. We have had a good season up until now, but you can't always have it your own way as we saw there and it took a lot of hard graft at Oulton Park. They were three of the hardest races of the year in terms of working with the team to improve the car and in terms of going out there trying to stay out of trouble and make up places. At a place like Oulton, it isn't a bad achievement to stay out of trouble because of the nature of the circuit.

It's a trip to Scotland next in a few weeks and I'd like to think we'll go well at Knockhill - although I'd like to think that we will go well anywhere with the car. We know Darren had some good results with the car there last year but we are also aware of the fact that things have moved on since then.

We have to make sure we are on the pace from the moment we hit the track in the first practice session and try to make sure that we run consistently and are as high as possible in all three races.

That first win still eludes me…

Until next time,

Adam

For more info on Adam Jones, visit www.adam-jones.co.uk.