Pole, win, podium and puncture escape for Mat Jackson

Mat Jackson returned to the sharp end in some style at Rockingham, taking pole position, a race win and a second place, while also escaping the effects of a slow puncture en route to his victory.

Jackson took the first ever pole for Motorbase Performance on Saturday, before taking his Ford Focus ST to a convincing win in the opening encounter despite a slowly deflating tyre.

But both Jackson and team boss David Bartrum were most satisfied with race two, when the Focus came home second carrying maximum ballast.

Assessing his weekend, Jackson told TouringCarTimes: “Race one was great – if we could get clear and the degredation didn’t hit too hard, we would have walked away with it. From that side of things it’s good.

“Race two was probably the most encouraging because it’s the first time we’ve run with full ballast. To me the only other car which is scary is the Honda, because that seems to carry the weight and it’s very quick.

“They’re the guys to look at, it looks like the package to be in. But we’re chasing hard. We’re on the back foot because we haven’t got the knowledge.

“I think race three proves that. We were right on the back of Matt [Neal] six laps from the end and the car just dropped off a cliff. That’s because we haven’t got the knowledge on the tyres.”

It was a case of fine margins in the first race, with a late puncture causing Jackson a major scare.

He said: “Two laps from the end I could smell burning rubber and I hoped it was Jason [Plato] as he was in front of us. Fortunately we had enough of a gap to Gordon as he had rolled it off as well to save tyres.

“I rolled it off through the high-speed turn one and sure enough, when we came in it was flat. We were lucky, because Matt [Neal] had a puncture and he dropped down.

“It’s a great weekend. It keeps the big man happy as we managed to get the win and second place.”

Thoughts now turn to Silverstone, a track where Jackson and Motorbase have shone in the past.

“I can’t wait – the car feels very strong and I think it will suit Silverstone. I hope we can leave there even happier than we are today,” he said.