Sam Tordoff jumps to fourth in standings after Croft

West Surrey Racing’s Sam Tordoff enjoyed one of the strongest weekends of his touring car career at Croft, with a first, second and sixth seeing him jump to fourth in the championship standings.

After taking pole on Saturday, Tordoff lost out to team-mate Andy Priaulx in the first race on Sunday before a flawless lights-to-flag victory in the second race.

He followed it up with sixth on soft tyres in the final race, and is now just 33 points shy of series leader Gordon Shedden heading into the summer break.

“To end up P4 in the championship, I would never have expected that coming here this weekend,” said Tordoff to TouringCarTimes. “Adam Morgan was sixth and I thought I could get back ahead of him.

“I didn’t think it would be possible to achieve what we have this weekend, we have had some really good results. We were quick in quali, won a race and took sixth with 75kg on the soft tyre. I’m really happy.”

Assessing his first two races, Tordoff added: “I made a little mistake in race one. It drizzled for a few laps and it caught me out, I ran onto the dust on the exit of the chicane and that was the chance Andy needed.

“I was a little bit disappointed but at the end of the day I got a point for leading, a point for fastest lap, I was on pole for race two and we finished second.

“To back that up in race two as we did and win it so comfortably was fantastic. It worked perfectly. I was carrying 66kg so I was a bit wary of Jason [Plato]. But Jason getting ahead of Andy gave me a bit of breathing space – it allowed me to not push as hard as maybe I would have needed to.”

Tordoff is also competing in the European Le Mans Series this season and will return to action in that championship during the BTCC’s summer break.

“The Ferrari is a lot quicker, but it’s just more and more experience of rear-wheel drive for me. It keeps me sharp, and in the six-week break between now and Snett it’s more days in the car I wouldn’t otherwise be doing,” he said.