AmDTuning.com shine in Rockingham gloom

The AmDTuning.com team bounced back from a difficult start to race day at Rockingham to secure its best results of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season.

Ollie Jackson, AmDTuning.com

Photo by: Pat Cranham

Saturday’s qualifying session saw Attleborough-based driver Ollie Jackson qualify in 17th place but his opening race was ruined on the first lap when a loose boost pipe forced him to pit. Although he was able to rejoin, the issue would return and additional stops meant he was unclassified at the finish.

Rain arrived at the Northamptonshire circuit before the start of race two, with Ollie lining up at the back of the field after his earlier issues. A hugely impressive drive saw him race into the points by the end of the opening lap and into the top ten by lap eight. Further progress in the closing laps saw him cross the line eighth to match his best result of the season and also saw Ollie rewarded with a front-row slot for race three when the reverse grid draw was carried out.

A hectic start saw Ollie shuffled back to eleventh place but when the race calmed down, he soon started to make progress back up the order, passing the Ford Focus of Mat Jackson to go tenth. Driving impressively and setting strong lap times, Ollie would make up further positions to again finish eighth; giving him his biggest score from a BTCC weekend so far.

As a result, he is now 18th in the overall championship standings and 14th amongst the Independents.

“Race one was absolutely gutting as nothing went right for us, but we made up for it in races two and three,” he said. “The car performed really well in the wet conditions and now we need to try and get into a position where it is just as strong in the dry.

“We’ve had a lot of bad luck this season so to get two strong results is really pleasing. To come from the back to eighth in race two was great but then I got murdered at the start of race three – everyone was bumping off me and pushing me about. However we showed good pace and were lapping strongly right to the finish which allowed me to make up positions.

“After a difficult start, it was a very rewarding way for the weekend to finish.”

AmDTuning.com boss Shaun Hollamby was also pleased with the results on track, which came on the weekend when the team welcomed a number of new team members onboard as part of its development programme to move the Golf up the grid.

“After race one I feared it was going to be one of those days, but Ollie drove fantastically well in the second and third races and didn’t put a foot wrong,” he said. “He stayed out of trouble when a number of more experienced drivers didn’t and he showed good pace from start to finish. From the back of the field to eighth in race two was an impressive performance, especially when the places were earned on merit and not inherited because of others going off track.

“As a team we have worked well and found a really good set-up that Ollie was able to make the most of. We’ve got some ideas from this weekend that we want to look at for Silverstone and hopefully we can have another strong run there.”

AmD Tuning.com are supported by AmDtuning.com, Beavis Morgan, Corbeau, Showtrax, LUKE, Milltek, Superpro, SFS, Airtec, Legend Vehicle Specialists, Pipercross and KW.

Source: AmD Tuning.com