Sam Tordoff delighted to take first BMW podium

Sam Tordoff was pleased to have made his first trip to the podium with West Surrey Racing and is now turning his attention to getting similar results at more “BMW-friendly” circuits as the season progresses.

The BMW driver made steady improvements to his car throughout the day, scoring 11th in race one, sixth in race two and third in the final race. After a difficult start to the season, Tordoff was glad to make a break at Thruxton and get the podium monkey off his back.

“I’m over the moon,” Tordoff told TouringCarTimes. “It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take, it’s been a struggle in this bit of the year. We’ve not had the luck with regulation changes the car’s been slowed down, I’ve always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In race two I seemed to get that break, ironically by Andy [Jordan, Triple Eight Racing] spinning and causing chaos that gave us a break, finished sixth and the reverse grid gave us what we needed.”

Tordoff’s team-mate Rob Collard had criticised the equalisation between the BMW and the cars running the TOCA engine. Tordoff somewhat echoed the feelings of Collard but was pleased with the day’s work and the car’s performance come the chequered flag in race three.

“We’ve got a good car, we really do have a good car,” he continued. “The straight line defecit here is for all to see, for three quarters of the lap we can make real good progress and then it’s just a case of hanging on. The problem was I could never have got ahead because I needed the tow. It was really important for me to hold on to Andy Jordan, the last person you want behind you is someone in a Volkswagen around here. I thought Colin [Turkington, Team BMR] would pass us long before the end of the race but I did everything I could to latch on to Andy and it worked out quite well for us actually. I’m really pleased with the way it’s ended, from a difficult start I think we’ve had a pretty good result here.”

The championship will now move on to Oulton Park, a circuit where the BMW was strong in 2014, and Tordoff goes in to the remainder of the season full of confidence after getting the “bogey tracks” out of the way successfully.

“I got told the two bogey tracks were Donington and Thruxton and we’ve done them now, so we go to Oulton Park with optimism,” said Tordoff to TouringCarTimes. “The car was quick last year, and from then Croft and Knockhill and the likes of that. I think the tracks we’re going to go to are going to be really good, I think the car’s going to get better and the straight line speed deficit isn’t going to be as important, so it’s a win win for us really.”