Airwaves Racing enjoyed a brilliant weekend at Donington Park in the second round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship as both Mat Jackson and Liam Griffin scored firsts for the 2011 season.

Mat Jackson lead his turbo powered Ford Focus to it’s first win of 2011 whilst team-mate Liam Griffin opened his account with his first points finish of the season.

After a terrible qualifying session which saw the Henley-In-Arden driver record just one flying lap, Jackson was able to bring home the Focus in three points scoring positions in the three races to leave him just 5 points off the championship leader after two rounds.

“We didn’t get off to a good start in qualifying after only managing to finish one lap, so we were on the back foot from the off. We did well to salvage what we had after contact in both races and to come back with a win in race 3 is fantastic for our sponsors.” Mat went on to say, “It’s always satisfying to see the car do well and to get a great result for the team and David. We can go in to Thruxton now with a smile on our faces.”

Griffins weekend was one of mixed fortunes. Things went from bad to worse after a tough 1st race meant that the BTCC rookie would only manage 14th place before heavy contact with Plato in race two almost wrecked the Airwaves Racing Ford Focus. However the team worked tremendously well to rebuild the damaged car of Griffin which he took from 22nd on the grid to finish in 9th place and taking his first top 10 finish of his BTCC career.

Speaking after the final race, Griffin said, “I started fairly averagely. Race 1 didn’t go well and race 2 was a disaster, obviously with quite a lot of damage to the car that was not my doing, but to see the Airwaves boys turn it around and get me back out for race 3 was amazing. They did their bit and I wanted to make it worth their while. I’m delighted to get that monkey off my back now and get that first points score under my belt.”

Team Principal, Dave Bartrum also reflected on what had been a hard and tough weekend for the team. “Coming to Donington is always interesting for Airwaves Racing. We had a frustrating time in the first two races, Liam had a bit of damage in race 2, but fair play to the boys for the effort they made to get the car back out for race 3 and to Liam for scoring his first BTCC points. I’m over the moon.”

“You always want your cars in the top ten but for Mat to start in 10th and win the race is fantastic and for Liam to avoid the trouble and come in with a points score is a great result for the team. As I’ve said before, the Championship all about legs, that’s another leg of the Championship done now and we’ll see what comes out of Thruxton in a couple of weeks.”

The championship rolls into Thruxton for the third round of the season in just five weeks on April 30st/May 1st.

Photo Credit: Steven Knightley (www.sjkphotography.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.