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Steven Kane, Andrew Jordan and Stephen Jelley will fancy their chances
of more points at Rockingham on Sunday 13 April after each scored on
their HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship debuts at Brands Hatch
last Sunday.
Motorbase driver Kane came away the highest placed, 11th in the
standings thanks to his strong eighth place in race one. His day ended
early with a spectacular shunt in race two when his BMW 320si was sent
scraping backwards at high-speed along the pit wall after contact with
Mike Jordan’s John Guest Honda Integra.
But
Northern Irishman Kane held no gripes. He said: "It was a racing
incident; I just didn't see that Mike was there.” And he added: "The
first race was brilliant. I didn’t get such a good start as I was on
the damp side of the grid, but the car was really good. Then it started
to drizzle in the middle of the race and Matt Neal got by me. But I was
flying again towards the end of the race and so I couldn't ask for more
in my first BTCC race."
Jordan found himself
pushed about in the opening two races but learnt quickly and in race
three was able to make it two John Guest cars in the top ten as he took
a fine ninth for two points behind father Mike in fourth.
"The
third race was mega," said the 18-year-old. "I had a good battle with
Stephen Jelley in the BMW. It looked like his rear tyres were going
away and he just dropped a wheel in the gravel at Paddock and I got him
on the run up to Druids to get ninth."
Indeed,
Team RAC BMW driver Jelley followed Jordan Jnr across the line in tenth
for a single point but he was satisfied considering his career to date
has been all single-seaters – indeed, he then travelled straight from
Brands to the Middle East for this weekend’s Bahrain Formula 1 Grand
Prix where he will take part in the supporting GP2 Asia races.
Jelley
told BTCC.net: “It was a bit of a culture shock. It’s action all the
time and you’re forever fighting with four or five different cars per
lap. In single-seaters you spend most of the race thinking about lap
times – in touring cars you spend most laps planning your next
overtaking move, planning three corners ahead. My eyes were out on
stalks for the first race. I got pushed wide so it was a lesson quickly
learnt.
“What also struck me was the size of the
crowd and how supportive all the fans are – everyone I talked to wished
me well. It was great to see so many people during the pit lane
walkabout and I’ve never known anything like signing that many
autographs.”
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