Photo: PSP Images

Collard and Jordan close at the top of the indies’

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Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan stretched out his lead over Rob Collard by just one point at the front of the BTCC independents’ standings after Croft, and heads to Snetterton with a seven point lead over the West Surrey Racing BMW driver.

After another disastrous weekend for Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson, the two were able to breakaway at the top of the standings, with Jordan finishing second in the independents’ classification in all three races, whilst Collard took the independents’ class win in race one and finished third in races two and three.

Collard and Jordan are also tied for fourth place in the overall drivers’ championship, albeit 50 points down on championship leader Matt Neal in the works Honda.

“We scored good points for the championship and that’s the main thing,” said Collard to TouringCarTimes. “We’ve had three solid finishes again all in the points, which is fantastic for eBay Motors Racing. I had a podium in race one, Tom’s had a podium in race three, we can’t really ask for a lot more.”

“We were the top S2000 car again this weekend which is a big achievement. I think it could have been a little bit better for us; we didn’t get the maximum from the car in qualifying. We raced well in race one, but didn’t have the set-up in race two and dropped back a little bit, and in race three I just got caught out by the oil after the safety car and ran wide at Tower.”

In the third race Collard lept up from sixth on the grid to second behind team-mate Nick Foster, but was re-passed by Andy Neate’s MG. Collard looked set for a second place finish and independents’ class win before he was one of several drivers who slipped on oil at Tower bend late in the race.

“It was a fabulous start, I think that was one of my best ones,” added Collard. “We’re showing good pace through the races today…we’ve making good steps forward making the car last longer on its tyres over the last two weekends, and it’s all looking promising.”

BTCC Independent Drivers’ Standings after Croft