Andrew Jordan pleased with first BMW pole after “mad session”

Andrew Jordan declared himself both happy and relieved after securing his first pole position for West Surrey Racing after a chaotic BTCC qualifying session at Croft.

Having been on the pace throughout free practice, the 2013 champion led the way through the opening half of qualifying before light rain started to fall during the fourth red flag period of the session – leaving question marks over whether there would be further improvements.

Once the action did get back underway, lap times continued to fall and Jordan was able to improve his own time before a puncture caused him to slide off track at the complex, with his BMW getting stuck on the grass.

That resulted in a fifth red flag, which would ultimately end the session, with Jordan stripped of his best time – although his second quickest time was still good enough to edge out Chris Smiley to top spot.

“It was a mad session and to end up causing the last red flag wasn’t part of the plan,” he said. “I thought the rule was that you lost all your times but luckily it was just the quickest one and we had three that were good enough for pole. It’s good to get a first pole in the BMW and we have to try and add to our points tally tomorrow to get closer to the top of the standings.

“We dodged a bullet a bit with the puncture because of where it happened and we need to look into why. I might have just clipped a kerb behind Smiley and there was also a moment where I had to run ride through some of the crap at the complex going round someone so there might have been some debris we picked up.

“We need to see what the drop off is like on the tyres tomorrow and I think the FWD cars will be closer to the pace but I’m confident we can bag some big points.”