JORDAN RESCUED BY BMW BTCC DEAL
Champion set to return as part of three-car WSR attack in 2020
British Touring Car Championship star Andrew Jordan says he has been given the ultimate Christmas present by signing up to drive a Team BMW 330i M Sport in next year’s competition.
Jordan, who won the title in 2013, looked like he would be on the sidelines after a backer withdrew, but he has now been recruited as a Team BMW driver to race the Wsr-operated cars in the 2020 contest.
Jordan, who finished runner-up in the BTCC this year, will join reigning champion Colin Turkington and Tom Oliphant in the three-car attack.
Jordan said: “This has been months in the planning and it is the only seat I wanted. I am in the BTCC to win, and I can do that with this car. It is a perfect deal for me, and a really nice feeling for Christmas.”
Andrew Jordan has secured a dream deal to remain on the British Touring Car Championship grid as part of an expanded three-car Team BMW squad in 2020.
The 2013 title winner, who has won 26 BTCC races, parted ways with his long-term backer Pirtek at the end of the 2019 campaign and was left searching for a new deal to rescue his tin-top career.
However, BMW has stepped up and Jordan will remain with the Wsr-run operation. He will again line up alongside reigning champion Colin Turkington and Tom Oliphant in the rearwheel-drive machines.
Jordan was runner-up in the 2019 season despite effectively missing three of the 30 races due to injuries sustained in a lap-one crash at the second meeting of the year at Donington Park.
He bounced back and took six wins throughout the season to finish just two points behind Turkington in the hunt.
“This has been the best Christmas present I could ever have dreamt of,” said Jordan. “There was a very real chance that I would have had to consider a programme doing something outside of the BTCC next year, which is not really what I wanted. But now all my plans are firmed up, I feel great about the season ahead.”
Dream chance
Jordan, who first raced in the BTCC in 2008, said that the deal to remain with the Lower Sunburybased squad was a dream come true and that he has targeted a second crown in 2020.
The 30-year-old said: “Ever since Pirtek – who have been incredible supporters of mine for a decade – told me that motorsport no longer featured in their plans last summer, I’ve been trying desperately to piece together a deal to remain in the BTCC with WSR.
“I was only focused on coming back with BMW because I know how good the car is. Winning is what motivates me and that’s what I go racing for, and I wouldn’t have stayed in the BTCC at all costs and go to a team where I would struggle to win races. I knew the WSR BMW was the place I wanted to be, and I put all my eggs in one basket just hoping I could get a deal together to remain, and I have.
“After winning more races than anyone else and coming so close to winning my second BTCC title last year, the aim is to go one better and I absolutely have the best team around me I could possibly hope for to make that dream a reality. I can’t wait.”
Validation
Jordan said that the increased involvment from BMW, which will bring him into the fold as a fully-fledged works driver, has been crucial in putting the programme together.
“I have been in a very fortunate position for the last 10 years or so that I could go to a team with a bag of cash from sponsors, but that wasn’t the case for 2020,” he said. “As in most forms of motorsport, sometimes budget can outweigh talent, so you are never sure where you are going to stand. But BMW has gone above and beyond what it needed to do, and there is a really good feeling about this whole deal because it shows that they wanted me in the car.”
Jordan said he had explored options to race in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB should his BTCC plans be sidelined, and that his Jordan Racing Team would still look to run a car in that category. He also confirmed that he will dovetail his BTCC outings with appearances in historic racing in 2020.
Strongest line-up
Jordan has been tipped to shine next term by WSR team boss Dick Bennetts, who said that winter developments to the 330i M Sport should make it an even more competitive proposition in 2020.
Bennetts said: “I’m really pleased to be able to announce this news today. AJ is one of the finest BTCC drivers not just of the current crop, but of this whole generation, and he showed incredible determination and fighting spirit this year to turn what could have been a complete loss after the Donington incident into a final-round battle for the championship.
“With Colin, Tom and now AJ forming a three-pronged line-up and a BMW 330i M Sport that is undergoing a development programme during the winter, we have one of, if not the strongest line-ups in recent BTCC seasons and a car to challenge for more championships. Continuity is a key to success.”
The 2020 British Touring
Car Championship kicks off at Donington Park on March 28-29.
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas says he will need to be version ‘2.77’ of himself to win the Formula 1 title next year.
Having played second fiddle to team-mate Lewis Hamilton over the first two seasons of his Mercedes tenure – with the latter half of 2018 proving particularly difficult – Bottas took an imperious win in this year’s season opener in Melbourne.
The victory, paired with a seemingly different attitude and a perceived rise in confidence, triggered widespread references to ‘Bottas 2.0’ – and though he ultimately did not mount a sustained title challenge versus Hamilton, Bottas did manage to finish a comfortable career-best second in the standings.
When answering a question about if he needed to move beyond ‘Bottas 2.0’ to dethrone Hamilton next year, Bottas jokingly made a reference to his #77 race number.
“The fact is, I think competition is only going to get tougher between the top three teams,” he said. “So, for sure beating Lewis is always hard, but it means also beating the other drivers.
“But I know I have the speed in me and the ability so I don’t think I need to make any miracles. I need to fine-tune everything – so, let’s say ‘Bottas 2.77’, maybe.”