Mat Jackson admits he was frustrated at not being able to fight
Tom Onslow-Cole for victory in the third race of the weekend at
Snetterton after the Jackson MSport man was caught up in the dramatic incident involving title rivals
Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Jackson had earlier produced solid performances in the opening races of the day to come from ninth on the grid to fourth in race one, and then follow that up with a fifth place finish in race steering damage sustained in a coming together with Gordon Shedden having prevented him fighting for victory.
From the front row of the grid, Jackson held second when the third race got underway before dropping behind Plato and it was while trying to reclaim the place that the 26-year-old saw his chances of victory vanish when he was forced off track and dropped down to seventh place.
Plato had passed me with a nice clean move at the Esses, but towards the end of the race he started holding me up and I could see Giovanardi getting closer in my mirrors, Jackson reflected. It was time to make my move and I thought I'd completed the manoeuvre. I went around his outside through the first part of the Esses so I was alongside him and on the inside line for the exit, but he did not see me and turned in on the normal line. We made contact and the cars slowed.
I don't know why he did that, but it allowed Giovanardi to join in. It's a shame as I ended up having to go off onto the grass to avoid him and Giovanardi at the next corner and thought for a moment I was going into the barriers.
I'm sure I'd have caught Onslow-Cole and challenged him for the win. I also think we'd have had a chance to win race two had the car not been damaged in that scrape with Shedden but that was just hard racing and I'm fine with it. Unfortunately, the tracking got knocked out and the handling was awful. I had severe understeer and we did well to rescue fifth.
