Jackson picking up the points, back up to second

Mat Jackson’s objective at Thruxton was to keep scoring points, and the Motorbase Performance driver moves back to second in the championship behind Honda’s Matt Neal.

Jackson’s points haul of 24 from Thruxton is as many as he took last time out at Donington Park, where he won the third race of the day to be one of five different winners from the first nine rounds of the season.

“We came here with one mission and that was points in every race,” said Jackson to TouringCarTimes.

“Although we’ve had some good results, we’ve not had much points from them. We took 12 points in the first two races, which is as good as a second place result.”

“We managed to drag a podium out, so it’s a good result for everyone at Airwaves Racing.”

Jackson finished in second position in the third and final race of the day after a great start in the Ford Focus ST, following Jason Plato to the chequered flag, but admits a battle with last year’s champion was never on.

“He (Plato) was going to put up a good fight and to be fair what you can say about the Chevrolet Cruze, it’s one quick motor in a straight line,” said Jackson.

Mat Jackson also moves up into the lead of the BTCC Independents’ Trophy with 100 points and four independents’ class wins.

Triple Eight driver James Nash drops to second place six points behind, and Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan third, 12 points down on Jackson.