Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

Brands Hatch BTCC: Jordan dominates Race 2 of season opener

Andrew Jordan scored a dominant win in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Brands Hatch as Ashley Sutton just hung on in a frenetic four-way battle for second.

Podium race 2 winner: Andrew Jordan, WSR BMW

Podium race 2 winner: Andrew Jordan, WSR BMW

JEP / Motorsport Images

WSR’s new BMW 330i M Sport chalked its first victory by 9.728 seconds thanks to Jordan running the hard compound tyres, but all eyes were on the four-car battle for second, which was decided by just 0.022s.

Race 1 winner Josh Cook enjoyed a clean getaway from pole and remained unchallenged into Paddock Hill Bend as Josh Hill got too much wheelspin from second.

That allowed Motorbase’s Tom Chilton to close and pass into Druids and for Cook to pull out a 1.4s lead despite behind laden with the maximum success ballast of 54kg – down from 75kg.

A strong opening lap for Sutton meant he climbed from ninth on the grid to fourth after a drawn-out battle with the Mercedes of Adam Morgan – the Subaru's poor straightline performance preventing the Team BMR driver from pulling away.

But he held the place and then relieved Hill of third through Clearways.

After closing to Chilton, Sutton launched up the inside of the Ford Focus RS into Graham Hill Bend for second.

Cook’s ballast meant he wore his soft tyres faster than Sutton and had his 4.6s lead slashed, although 15th-starting Jordan was setting fastest laps as the hard tyre came into its own.

Having carved his way through the field, Jordan and Sutton drew side-by-side on the main straight.

But Sutton was later on the brakes into Paddock Hill Bend to maintain second.

Both continued to reel in Cook, and with Jordan clearly the faster car, Sutton could not waste time and so repeated his incisive move through Graham Hill on Cook for the race lead.

Cook was forced wide and Jordan slid through to second, but Sutton failed to hold on as Jordan used the BMW’s superior straightline speed to pass.

From there Jordan was unchallenged and romped into a clear lead.

The battle to maintain first cost Sutton and he began to struggle on his tyres. That brought Morgan, Hill, Tom Ingram and Stephen Jelley into play.

Sutton’s top speed struggles meant the pack concertinaed on the final lap and finished nose-to-tail.

The 2017 champion just held on by 0.022s ahead of Morgan and Hill, with Ingram a tenth further back and Jelley just 0.008s off insixth.

Cook fell back to seventh, but manages to hold on to the points lead, while Rory Butcher, Chilton and Sutton’s teammate Senna Proctor completed the top 10.

The Team Dynamics Honda Civics of Matt Neal and Dan Cammish were 11th and 12th as Jordan’s teammates Colin Turkington and Tom Oliphant were 14th and 15th – the decision to split the team strategy and run on softs coming at their expense.

Jason Plato struggled to make progress after a race 1 penalty and so finished 21st, six places ahead of Mark Blundell.

Race 2 result

POS DRIVER TEAM CAR LAPS GAP
1 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 24 20m04.881s
2 Ash Sutton BMR Racing Subaru 24 9.728s
3 Adam Morgan Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 24 9.750s
4 Jake Hill Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 24 9.860s
5 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 24 10.015s
6 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing BMW 24 10.023s
7 Josh Cook BTC Racing Honda 24 11.510s
8 Rory Butcher AmD Tuning Honda 24 13.163s
9 Tom Chilton Motorbase Performance Ford 24 14.106s
10 Senna Proctor BMR Racing Subaru 24 14.439s
11 Matt Neal Team Dynamics Honda 24 14.526s
12 Dan Cammish Team Dynamics Honda 24 14.788s
13 Bobby Thompson Team Hard Volkswagen 24 15.147s
14 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 24 15.466s
15 Tom Oliphant WSR BMW 24 16.482s
16 Jack Goff Team Hard Volkswagen 24 17.108s
17 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 24 21.245s
18 Ollie Jackson Motorbase Performance Ford 24 21.763s
19 Sam Tordoff AmD Tuning Honda 24 21.987s
20 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Honda 24 23.082s
21 Jason Plato Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 24 24.278s
22 Rob Collard Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 24 26.639s
23 Michael Crees Team Hard Volkswagen 24 26.770s
24 Rob Smith Excelr8 Motorsport MG 24 26.997s
25 Carl Boardley Team Hard Volkswagen 24 36.441s
26 Nicolas Hamilton Motorbase Performance Ford 24 38.168s
27 Mark Blundell Trade Price Cars Racing Audi 24 40.759s
28 Sam Osborne Excelr8 Motorsport MG 23 1 Lap
- Matt Simpson Simpson Racing Honda 16 Retirement
- Daniel Rowbottom Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes 7 Retirement

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Brands Hatch BTCC: Cook wins opener from 10th
Next article Brands Hatch BTCC: Chilton ends opening round with win

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia