Photo: PSP Images

Mat Jackson pleased with Motorbase progress

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Mat Jackson said he was pleased with the step forwards taken by Motorbase after qualifying at Oulton Park, although he admitted there was still work to do for the Ford team.

Jackson produced his best qualifying performance of the season to take P7 on the grid for race one on a weekend where TOCA announced it was to carry out evaluation on the Mountune engines fitted to the Ford Focus cars – as well as those in the Subaru Levorg.

Speaking on the back of qualifying, Jackson revealed that the changes made to the car since Thruxton had had a positive impact on performance but he conceded that the Shredded Wheat-backed squad wasn’t yet where it wanted to be.

“We’re in a better position as things have been equalised a bit more, although we still have work to do as we aren’t challenging for P1,” he said. “There are cars ahead of us that are carrying ballast so we know we have more improvements to make, but we are moving in the right direction.

“Everyone knows we’ve struggled with boost this season, and when that’s the case, it’s difficult as you have to try and do more work with the chassis. Now that everyone is running the same RML-spec parts, trying to find extra time in the chassis is more difficult and it’s harder to try and make up time you are losing elsewhere. That’s just what we’ve had for three rounds and it’s been tough, but we’re getting there.”

Jackson has scored just 37 points this season to sit nearly 100 behind current leader Tom Ingram, although he refused to concede that the tough start to 2017 had already ended his title hopes.

“We need to get points on the board to get our season back on track,” he said. “We’ve lost a lot in the opening three rounds but we can’t look back and have to work hard to try and battle back.

“The championship isn’t over as anything can happen in this series and we are going to have to fight tooth and nail through the rest for the rest of the year. With the position we are in, you don’t need to be a mathematician to see that we need to score big at every opportunity and hopefully that can start tomorrow.”