First points of the year for AmDTuning at Thruxton

Ollie Jackson in the Cobra Sport sponsored AmDTuning.com Audi S3 secured his first points finish of the year in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship and emerged unscathed from a wild weekend of racing at Thruxton.

A top 20 showing in the opening practice session showed the potential of the Audi package but a fuel supply problem in qualifying would leave Tamworth-based Ollie in 25th place on the grid for the opening race.

Taking the decision to manage tyres on a very hot day at Thruxton, Ollie stayed out of trouble and was progressing well to be in a position to make a push up the field for the final laps of the race. However, the race was red flagged prematurely with 5 laps to go after a number of high speed tyre failures along with an incident at the final chicane caused by a puncture. The AmDTuning.com Audi with plenty of wear left to get to the end of the race took the chequered flag in 17th place.

The decision to shorten races two and three to twelve laps due to high track temperatures forced the team to make set-up changes to the Audi, with Ollie taking the chequered flag in 21st in the second race of the weekend. Race three however saw Ollie produce his best result of the year to date with a solid run through to 14th place, giving him his first points finish of the campaign and allowing AmDTuning.com to score with the Audi for the first time.

“The final race was a good way to end the weekend and I'm pleased to bring home a first points finish of the season," he said. “If I'm being honest, I don't think I got the best out of the car in the opening two races, so to come back and get a result for the team and some points on the board in race three is really good."

Team boss Shaun Hollamby was also pleased with the fact that the team was able to pick up a first points finish of the year, even if the shortening of the final two races race and the earlier red flag prevented Ollie from adding more to his tally. “It was good to end the day with some points on the board, although it's a shame that we weren't able to benefit from the set-up work we'd put in on Saturday," he said.

“We had worked on having a car that was good for 16 laps in hot conditions but other, very experienced, teams chose not to take the advice of Dunlop and the weather forecaster, hence the race length was adjusted to their level of preparedness. When the races were shortened, we then had to look at making changes to go more aggressive on the set-up to make the tyres last for twelve rather than 16 laps."

For the second event this season we had official AmDTuning / Cobra Sport team wear available for sale on the Motorsport Photography Ltd stall. The team wear as worn by the team, along with Cobra Sport hoodies and t-shirts proved popular over the weekend with lots of our new merchandise spotted in the crowd around the event. The team wear and hoodies will be available for sale at all of the BTCC events this season.