Mat Jackson: “We’re still learning” as tyre wear hits in race one

Mat Jackson was impressed with the pace of his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus in race one, but admits the drop off from the soft tyre was greater than expected.

Jackson jumped to the lead from the start of the race but soon found himself under immense pressure towards the end of the race as the BMWs managed their tyres and reeled in the Motorbase driver.

“The car was very, very quick out the box,” Jackson told TouringCarTimes. “We managed to get away and get a good lap in there, but it’s a shame we dropped off in the end. We’re still learning the changes in the tyre, which we haven’t run on a lot this year. We know where the mistake was and we’ve learnt from that and we’ll just get stronger and stronger. In race two, we’ve got to carry the ballast but we’re on pole we need to see what comes of it. It’s going to be an interesting one.”

Between races the team now have to make adjustments for running a larger amount of ballast they have in the past and, although they’re on the harder Dunlop tyre, they are still slightly worried about any potential tyre wear issues they may face in race two.

“We knew it’d drop off,” he continued. “Not quite as much as what it did, we understand why it has and we can now make some changes to combat that problem. Touch wood we can make it go a bit longer, but we’ve got the ballast onboard, we’ve never run that ballast so we’re now into unknown waters, so let’s go wait and see.”