Sam Tordoff delighted with first win of season

Triple Eight’s Sam Tordoff secured a late present with his first win of the season a day after his 25th birthday, and the Yorkshire racer declared himself happy with a much improved showing at Donington Park.

Tordoff had struggled at Brands Hatch in his MG6 GT, but swiftly put that behind him with by qualifying third on Saturday, and coming home second behind team-mate Jason Plato in race one.

Race two he went one better, leading from lights to flag in wet conditions, before a struggle on the soft tyres saw him slip to 16th in the finale. However, penalties for Tom Ingram and Fabrizio Giovanardi at least meant he picked up two points, after being promoted to 14th.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Tordoff said: “Overall it was very good. We’re back where we need to be, with two good results.

“I wanted to get on the wins tally a lot sooner this season. We have done that at the second round, and we need to build on that going forward.

“Race three was very strange – a bit of an anomaly. We never had the tyre in the first place. It was gone from the start of the race.

“Something was very wrong somewhere, and we struggled very badly. It was a shame, because I would have liked to have stayed in the top 10. To get three results in touring cars is really tough.”

Looking ahead to the next round, Tordoff added: “I’m not too sure how Thruxton is going to pan out. We never really know, because we don’t do any testing there. I expect the Civic Tourers and [Andrew] Jordan to be right up there.

“But I think we go there with a bit more faith, certainly for me, than Brands Hatch.”