Jordan takes another BTCC double at Croft

Andrew Jordan claimed his fourth and fifth race wins of 2019 in the latest MSA British Touring Car Championship round at Croft, as the new BMW 3 Series continued its stunning start to the season.

Tom Chilton took the honours in the final race of the day in his Motorbase-run Ford Focus RS for his first win of the season. Team BMW driver Colin Turkington took three solid finishes at the Yorkshire circuit, including a second place in the second race, to strengthen his championship lead.

BMW Pirtek Racing driver Jordan claimed his first pole position since 2014 in a qualifying session hit by five red flags, and delivered a faultless performance to dominate the opening race. Honda Civic Type R racer Chris Smiley kept the pressure on throughout. Chilton ran third, spending the final stages of the race holding off the BMWs of Turkington and Tom Oliphant.

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Jordan continued his hot streak in the second race of the day, once again leading from start to finish. Things didn’t go quite so smoothly for Smiley: struggling with success ballast he was eventually overhauled by Turkington for second, and was then passed by the works Civic Type Rs of Dan Cammish and Matt Neal. 

On the final lap, Smiley was attempting to defend his place from Ash Sutton (Subaru Levorg) when the two made contact, putting Smiley out of the race – and earning Sutton a grid penalty for the day’s final race.

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Chilton slipped back to ninth in the second race, but was then drawn on the pole for the day’s final event. With rain at Croft easing just before the start, the drivers faced a dilemma over tyre choice.

Wets proved the right choice, and Chilton led all the way to take the win. But he didn’t have it easy, with Josh Cook (Civic Type R) and Jason Plato (Vauxhall Astra) pushing him throughout. 

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Jordan claimed a solid eighth finish to build on his strong form in the first two races. While Jordan now has three more wins than any other driver, a heavy crash that prevented him from scoring in any of the races at Donington Park means he is fourth in the points, 26 behind Turkington, who leads the way with 143.

Cook is second in the standings, 11 points off the lead, with Sutton third.