Jade Edwards: “Silverstone has reinforced my BTCC desire”

Jade Edwards insists that her one-off outing with Power Maxed Racing has “reinforced her desire” to try and secure a full-time BTCC drive after a solid series debut at Silverstone.

The former Clio Cup racer took over the Vauxhall Astra raced so far this season by Mike Bushell and Rob Austin for the sixth meeting of the campaign, becoming the first female driver to compete in the series since 2007 in the process.

Edwards, the daughter of former Production Class runner Jim Edwards Jr, qualified 26th on the grid for the opening race but had moved her way up to 20th place before contact from the Ford Focus on Andy Neate at Becketts shuffled her back to 23rd place.

An issue at the start of race two then dropped her to the back of the grid before she recovered through to 21st place, having got rid of the ballast she had to carry through qualifying and race one as a new entry.

After the final race was restarted as a result of Rory Butcher’s accident at Becketts, Edwards had battled her way up from 24th on the restart grid into 18th before power steering failure – a legacy of being forced onto the grass in an incident with Neate on lap one of the original start – meant she had no option but to retire to the pits.

However, Edwards was still pleased with the way in which the weekend had panned out and said she was now keen to try and put together a deal to return full-time for the 2021 campaign.

“In the opening race, I’d got a decent start and as the race went on, I felt things were starting to come to me,” she said. “I made a move on Andy Neate with a few laps to go but then two corners later, he drove like Andy Neate and we dropped back again. But I was able to get to the finish, was dicing for position and my laps were strong.

“The start in race two was a complete fail, but it was positive from that point onwards. My pace improved again, I made up places and I made good progress, which was the target for both myself and the team.

“It was just a shame that the power steering failed after being shoved onto the grass on lap one of the final race, as these cars really rely on it. I tried to keep going for as long as I could, and whilst it’s not the end we wanted, it was something that was out of my control and I’m still really happy with how things have gone.

“Overall, I’ve loved the car and I’ve loved the challenge; I’m so grateful for the opportunity that Adam [Weaver] and the team have given me. The desire and determination to be on the grid remains the same, and this has just reinforced it a bit more – and hopefully put me on that platform so show that I can be competitive, and that I can race well in this championship.

“If we can carry on that momentum, hopefully between now and the start of 2021, I’ll be able to get a deal in place and join the grid for a full year.”