After ending Saturday as fastest in both practice sessions and starting race one from the front row of the grid, Andrew Jordan looked set for a good points haul in the opening round of the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship but a string of bad luck was there to hamper his weekend.

Jordan, who is driving for Pirtek Racing this season, was well within the point during race one before debris caused the Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectra to develop a puncture on his front left tyre resulting in Jordan going a lap down and finishing outside the points. He started race two from 16th on the grid and showed the pace of the NGTC-turbo engine Vectra as he gained ten places to finish in 6th, which with the top seven cars reversed promoted him to 2nd on the grid for the final race of the day. Bad luck would hit the 21-year old once again though as he challenged Neal for the lead only to pick up yet another puncture and ruin his race weekend.

“All the hard work we’ve done over the winter has paid off and we’ve shown a great deal of promise. We’ve shown a lot of pace and we’ll be strong at Donington,” said Jordan reflecting on the day.

Talking about race three he went on to say, “I think I had Matt’s number. I was saving my tyres and had the pace on him. That is so disappointing.”

Andrew Jordan came away from the Kent circuit with 5 points to leave him in 11th place in the drivers championship and 8th in the Independents Trophy as the teams head to Derbyshire for the second round of the season at Donington Park.

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey (www.psmmotorsportimages.co.uk)

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.