Andy Priaulx enjoying return after Brands near-win

Andy Priaulx says he is enjoying being back in the close racing of the BTCC, despite a lack of top end speed hurting his drag race to the line with Brands Hatch race two winner Gordon Shedden.

The BMW driver lined up on second for race two and found himself in a strong battle with Shedden for second place, with the two trading door handles at various points across the circuit. Their battle soon became a battle for the lead when a puncture ended Jason Plato’s charge for the win, culminating in a thrilling charge for the line as the two were side-by-side out of Clearways.

“I’m really enjoying my return,” Priaulx told TouringCarTimes. “It was good fun, the racing was good fun. It was hard but relatively clean. I’m just pleased I’ve got good pace in the car.”

Priaulx suffered in the first race with the soft tyre dropping off the pace, but he managed to make the harder tyre work for him in the second encounter, but then struggled with straight line speed when compared to his rivals.

“The soft tyre was useless, it just fell off a cliff,” added Priaulx. “The hard tyre was much better and I still think we can improve our tyres, we had a bit too much understeer on the front left and I’m going to work on that for race three.

“I’m a bit frustrated because the top speed is so poor, clearly the tyre doesn’t degrade on the front-wheel-drive cars so I feel we’re on the back foot. Over one lap I think we can do a good job but it’s just managing when you’re in traffic and you need a good bit of grunt you’re a little bit susceptible really, you get fall back on to being passed.”