Jackson: Chilton needs to race smarter

Mat Jackson believes that Tom Chilton needs to race smarter if he’s to make full use of the form of his LPG powered Ford Focus. That’s the verdict that Jackson gave speaking to the official BTCC website ahead of this weekend’s Brands Hatch races, after a frustrating Rockingham weekend garnered him just eight points, in part thanks to a clash with Chilton in race three.

“Eight points from three races at Rockingham is a joke and that’s in no way down the lack of ability on my team’s part,” said Jackson to the BTCC website. “Hands up, I made a bad call on tyre choice for race one but in race two I got back up to a fourth place finish and in race three I felt the car was capable of at least getting onto the podium and maybe even going after Matt Neal for the win.

“But instead I’m out on lap one thanks to a pretty amateurish error. I really thought Tom knew better and I hope he’s learnt from it as it’s wiped him out of the race as well and then had a ticking-off.

“Tom’s team have clearly done a very good job with the LPG engine developments in the Ford but he needs to race a bit smarter if he’s going to make full use of it.”

The race three incident with Chilton left both cars out of the race and the Team Aon driver with an official reprimand from the stewards and two penalty points on his licence.

In his column in The Sun newspaper, Chilton glossed over the clash, saying, “Unfortunately I had a collision with Mat Jackson’s BMW early on and that was that. It was soooooo frustrating.”

Looking ahead to this weekend’s races on Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix circuit, Jackson is optimistic, despite having a dreadful meeting there in 2009, and believing that the rear-wheel drive machines will struggle against the clock on Saturday.

“At least I’ll go into qualifying with no ballast! Qualifying is going to be a struggle and I fully expect to see front-wheel-drive cars fill the top four or five places on the grid. But the BMW is a very good car in race trim and there are places on that circuit to weigh up people and pick them off.

“It’s not going to be easy, particularly with the current performance of the turbo-charged cars and the manufacturer teams’ cars. Also, Rockingham means we now really have got to start targeting 30 points and more at each round. We just need to think that little bit smarter than the others and there are some very clever people in my team. But if we are inside the top seven on the grid, I think we have a chance of taking away some good results on Sunday.”