Brands Hatch saw Adam Jones make his maiden appearance in the Team Air Cool SEAT Toledo in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. In his latest Crash.net column, he looks back at a stunning weekend of racing.
Well that’s the first round of the season done and out of the way and I think I'm ok in saying it went very well!
If someone had said to me that I was going to finish in the top ten for three races at Brands Hatch with 26 cars on the Indy circuit then I would have told them they were having a laugh. To do what we did after only having a half day test at
Croft on the Wednesday before the weekend was pretty remarkable – especially when it was my first race in a front-wheel drive car. It proves what Team Air Cool are capable of doing and I’m over the moon with it.
To be honest with you, I don’t know what I’d really expected from the weekend. I had a pretty open mind as I knew the car was good and the team was good, it was just a case of keeping out of trouble and bringing home some points. To be as lucky as I was, to bring home some
good points and end the weekend as the Independents’ points leader, was brilliant and I couldn’t have asked for more.
What we did, or didn’t, achieve last year was disappointing - so it was good to show people what I am capable of doing. It was good to be mixing it at the front and it felt great to be fighting for position with the best. To be on the front row alongside Fabrizio for the third race was something I didn’t expect in the run up to the weekend and to be fighting for the lead of the race with
Matt Neal was pretty mind-blowing.
It also means more people are aware of what I can do. A lot of people know what I have done abroad and that I have won championships, but there are still a lot of the press guys and a lot of fans who don’t know what I have achieved, so they were thinking ‘Who is this new guy Adam Jones?’ We have let people know now that we are in it to win it and that I will give as good as I get on the circuit.
