Sam Tordoff focuses on being “best of the rest”

Sam Tordoff said he felt he maximised everything at his disposal at Rockingham on his way to two podiums, as he and the Triple Eight team focus on being “best of the rest” for the remainder of the 2014 season.

Tordoff took a dominant pole position on Saturday, more than 0.4 seconds faster than championship leader Colin Turkington, but conceded the West Surrey Racing man was “in a different league” on raceday.

But far from being downbeat, the KX Akademy driver was delighted with his own performance, and happy that Triple Eight had overtaken Honda Racing Team in the battle for the manufacturers’ championship.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Tordoff said: “Colin’s in a different league and we can’t compete with him right now. But what we can do is be best of the rest, and we’ve certainly proved that this weekend.

“We clawed a lot of points back on Honda – they were actually quite a long way up the road in the championship before this weekend, but now the roles are reversed, and we’ve got a commanding lead.

“In that respect, very good. For me personally, a second pole position in a row, which was fantastic. The way we did it, being so far up the road, I take great pleasure from. And then we got three solid finishes.

“It was a good lap, and when you really maximise the potential, and get all three sectors purple, then you know you’ve done a good job. It was a case of being the right track conditions at the right time, and piecing it all together.

“It is a lap I am really proud of. But importantly, we’ve backed it up with three good results.”

Race one saw Tordoff’s best chance of a win, despite being beaten off the line by Turkington’s BMW 125i. He tried to pass the 2009 champion around the outside of Deene on lap two, and picked up a big tow after the safety car departed, but on both occasions was just unable to make the move stick.

Nevertheless, he still finished the weekend with a second, third and eighth under his belt, which he declared himself happy with.

He said: “I tried the best I could to get past in the early laps [in race one]. The problem with the BMW is as soon as it sets into a rhythm, he’s able to extend his lead at will. Even when he carries 45kg [success ballast] he can still drive at his own pace and drive away from me.

“It’s a frustrating thing for us, but it is what it is, and we have to be best of the rest. I definitely think we got the maximum out of it – we couldn’t do any more in races one or two, and to finish seventh and eighth on the soft tyre for us is a solid achievement, because it’s always been such a problem in the past.”