Reigning champion Andrew Jordan says he won’t be looking over his shoulder at the six other title winners on grid when he sets out to defend his British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday.
The 24-year-old from Lichfield, who won six races on his way to the crown last season in his Pirtek Honda Civic, says that he is keen to focus on his own performance rather than worry about what the others are doing.
Jordan topped the only official test session ahead of the season at the championship’s media day, which took place at Donington Park last Tuesday, and is full of confidence going in to the season ahead.
“I try with the whole testing thing just to keep my head down and not shout about my performance,” said Jordan. “You see people bragging and saying that things are going really well for them, but you aren’t going to say it is going wrong, are you? I know what [success ballast] weight we are running on and what we are doing. We just try and do our things because you can’t trust other lap times. There was very little we could improve because the car is so good in the first place, but we are happy with what we have done.”
Jordan is the second youngest champion the British Touring Car Championship has ever had, and he says that he is determined to make it back-to-back triumphs despite going up against champions Jason Plato, Matt Neal, Colin Turkington, Fabrizio Giovanardi, Gordon Shedden and Alain Menu. There is also a record 31 cars on the grid this season, which is the largest entry list since the championship became a single class in 1991.
Jordan says: “It excites me going up against those kinds of names – certainly guys like Menu, who I watched when I was growing up so that’s cool, but it doesn’t change my approach. It won’t make me try any harder because I try my hardest anyway and I am very hungry to sustain this success. To beat these big names can only enhance my reputation.”
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