Mat Jackson says he feels the battle for the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship is still very much on, despite defending champion Fabrizio Giovanardi having opened up a handy lead in the fight for the title.
Giovanardi has enjoyed a solid start to the campaign with four wins during the first half of the year leaving him with a lead of 23 points over Vauxhall team-mate
Matt Neal with Jackson currently third – 20 points further back.
It comes after a solid season so far for the
BMW Dealer Team UK driver, who won at Rockingham in the second round of the year and produced one of the finest drives seen in recent years at
Croft when he came from the back of the field to just miss out on victory in race two.
Had it not been for a tough weekend at
Donington Park, when all the BMW teams struggled in wet conditions, Jackson could well be higher in the standings but he admitted that he is still very much in contention for the title.
"If Fabrizio can pull out a 40 point lead [over me] in the first half of the season then why can't someone do it to him in the second half?" he said. "It is so close that two good results for someone in the top eight at
Snetterton and a bad weekend for Fabrizio and the championship is back on. There is still a long way to go with 15 races to go and it is tight. It's going to be entertaining.
"We could come off worse of the group that are behind us at Snetterton and come away in eighth place but it is great to see the championship so close – although we would like to be a little bit further up the order. If we can close in on Matt and open a lead on the guys behind at Snetterton then it would be ideal but everyone is trying to do the same to us. We have to get points finishes and three finishes."
