In his latest exclusive column for Crash.net, Mat Jackson reflects on a nightmare BTCC meeting at Thruxton last time out, and looks ahead to much better fortunes this weekend at Croft, as he endeavours to get back onto the leading pace once more…
The third round of the 2007 BTCC season at Thruxton didn’t go entirely to plan. We struggled for pace all weekend, and a few mistakes within the team really cost us. We didn’t get a good qualifying because the gear ratio we had in the car was too short and we found ourselves on the limiter for too long. It was simply a miscalculation on our part.
I also don’t think the circuit probably suited the
BMW as well as everybody had made out. Through the high-speed corners the front wheel-drive cars have a lot more stability than the rear wheel-drive machines.
In the first race we took the front corner off the car and didn’t finish. The BMW got its usual brilliant start off the line, I got up the inside of
Matt Neal and whether he saw me or not he squeezed me across. I tried to give him enough room but unfortunately there was no room left. I dropped the front right-hand wheel onto the grass and from there just accelerated and took out Matt’s team-mate Gordon Shedden, who had played no part in the incident but was merely collected as I was squeezed off the circuit.
Then to make matters even worse in race two the engine expired, so we didn’t even make race three! It was very frustrating. It was an expensive weekend, and that’s always a struggle for any of the privateer teams – if you haven’t got a big major sponsor on-board it makes it that little bit harder. We have the resources to do it, but it would be nice to be able to carry a spare engine in the lorry so that if we do have a problem we can at least get out for the next race. Unfortunately we don’t yet have that luxury.
