Andy Priaulx aiming for “big points” at Thruxton

Andy Priaulx will be aiming to return to the sharp end of the BTCC field at Thruxton after a less than perfect weekend at Donington saw only one top ten finish.

The West Surrey Racing driver took a trio of top ten results in the opening rounds of the season at Brands Hatch, before struggling for pace at Donington Park. Practice and qualifying for Thruxton have shown a return to speed for Priaulx, placing the car fifth on the grid for the first race of the day.

“Donington was a disappointment,” Priaulx told TouringCarTimes. “Clearly there were some other issues because we were just not competitive, I had an issue with the fuel pump in qualifying. I feel we’re back to a better performance here, P5 is like pole for me. We said before anything if we can get eighth then it’d be like pole because it’s not the best track for us, so I’m very happy for that.”

Priaulx will be running with 9kg of ballast for the first race owing to currently holding tenth in the points standings, starting behind the heavier weighted cars of Aron Smith, Adam Morgan and the Hondas of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, both of whom are carrying a substantial amount of success ballast.

“We’ve got to be serious that the Hondas have done amazingly well with the ballast they have,” Priaulx continued. “On one hand we’re really excited and on the other we’re a bit like “crikey” because when we put ballast in the car it all moves forward, so they’re improving their setup with weight distribution and ours is deteriorating with weight, so that’s something that needs to be thought about going forward. I had the weight at Donington in qualifying, obviously didn’t get a chance to do a lap, took the weight in to the first race, finished 12th. I think Donington could have been a top ten weekend as a bad weekend, but here anything above fifth I’ll be happy with.”

The three-time World Touring Car champion has a strong chance to get to the front from the first race, with the BMW historically being better off the line than its front-wheel-drive rivals. Despite this, Priaulx was keen to ensure he did not count his chickens, stating that a trip to the podium would be good, but knows it won’t be easy.

“You can’t really forecast, you’ve just got to try and drive your best,” he told TouringCarTimes. “It’ll be lovely to sneak on the podium in race one, that’d be a fantastic result. I’ve got to try and take some big points this weekend, although the championship will be tough for me because I’m missing Rockingham so it’s almost impossible, but I’d like to win some races this year and build my championship campaign.”