Mat Jackson enjoys strong form

Mat Jackson has started the British Touring Car Championship in a strong way. He won the second race at Rockingham and currently holds second place in the championship behind Fabrizio Giovanardi. The strong form is not something the BMW-man is surprised over.
“I hate sounding big-headed and sometimes might appear a bit guarded in responding to a few questions, but personally I am not surprised we are where we are,” said Jackson to BTCC.net.

“Last year was a learning curve but everything we learnt, any mistakes we made – we used that experience to our advantage. We spent all of last year working towards what you see now and the results are starting to show… I guess we just get on with it.”

Reigning champion Giovanardi is the only driver so far to do a better job than Jackson and the Italian predicted the strong form before the season start.

“Fabrizio said before the season he thought we’d be quick. He joked to me after race two at Rockingham that would be my last win of 2008… we’ll see about that! I’m up for the fight. I can’t wait for Donington. But it’s way too early to start thinking too much about championships and so on.”

For the race at Donington this weekend Jackson will carry 36 kilos of penalty weight in qualifying and the first race. The BMW-man is aware that the extra weight will most likely affect him.

“At Rockingham it affected us and we were only ninth – although we knew it should have been fifth. Donington is a different lay-out but it will still have an effect. About half the track, from Old Hairpin to Coppice, is constantly going uphill and we have to lug that weight up there.

“On saying that, I had my best qualifying result of 2007 at Donington – fourth – and this year we’ve got a much better qualifying strategy. We’ll only really know how we’re going to cope with the weight after Saturday’s two practice sessions.

Jackson predicts that the strongest competitors will be the diesel powered SEAT’s at Donington.

“I suspect the SEATs will be at their strongest yet at Donington – their diesel engines provide greater torque and a circuit like Donington should show that up. If they do come good at Donington then they are likely to make it even tighter at the top…”