VX Racing celebrates double victory at Snetterton

VX Racing celebrated two race wins at Snetterton race circuit in Norfolk, the first double victory of the season so far for the team. The sixth round of the ten event 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship produced three excellent races, with reigning champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi taking top honours in the first two races and a third place podium in the final race of the day. Matt Neal endured a tough weekend, with a best finish of fourth position, as well as a ninth and fourteenth place. Andy Jordan was unable to capitalise on a strong qualifying session yesterday, with a fifth and two 12th places.

Giovanardi’s two victories and third place podium vaulted him up to second place in the Drivers’ championship, ahead of team mate Neal, closing the gap to 16 points on series leader Colin Turkington, while Neal slipped back to third in the championship after collecting only ten points this weekend. VX Racing remains in the lead for both the Manufacturer/Constructor and the Team’s Championships.

The Vauxhalls lined up for the first race with Jordan in fourth place on the grid alongside Giovanardi in fifth and Neal further back in ninth place. Polesitter James Plato was beaten to the first corner by the rear-wheel drive BMW of Colin Turkington, while Jordan and Giovanardi stormed past James Thompson to go through into third and fourth. At the front Turkington and Plato made contact resulting in Plato pushed off the track, promoting Jordan to second place. Jordan and Turkington then battled for the lead, with Turkington ending up off track and Jordan leading team mate Giovanardi by the end of the first lap. Neal was less fortunate, with a midfield fight for position putting him on to the grass and dropping him down the field.

Jordan, the youngest BTCC driver on the grid, led the field for the first two laps, defending hard from team mate Giovanardi. The 20-year-old battled with a badly handling car, eventually succumbing to the Italian and the BTCC champion then headed the field. Jordan shadowed his team mate, but the rest of the field started to catch the Vauxhalls and Jordan, still struggling with his car, ended up off track, losing valuable positions. A brief safety car period closed up the field and threatened Giovanardi’s hold on the race, but the wily Italian showed his supremacy with a copybook restart and was then left unchallenged to the chequered flag. Neal had recovered from his difficult opening lap to salvage two points with a ninth place finish. Jordan had to settle for 12th place and a single championship point for leading the race.

Giovanardi sealed his second win of the weekend with a lights to flag victory in race two. The Italian BTCC ace, despite carrying maximum ballast of 45 kgs, was untouchable from the moment the race started, drawing away from the field and maintaining a comfortable lead through every lap to secure his fourth win of the season. Jordan had his attempt at a storming start thwarted by Tom Chilton who barged the young VX Racing driver off track in the first corner, dropping him back down the grid. Over the course of the race he recovered to reclaim his starting spot, finishing 12th at the chequered flag. Neal scuppered his race with a jump start which incurred a drive through penalty, dropping him to the back of the grid. The VX Racing driver finished in 14th place.

All three drivers made strong starts in the third race, with Giovanardi up to seventh at the end of the first lap, Jordan in tenth place and Neal in 13th. Over the next few laps Neal picked off his rivals and was up to seventh place when the safety car was deployed to recover a stricken car. A second safety car period interrupted the flow of the race for a second time, with Giovanardi lying in fourth, Neal in fifth and Jordan in sixth. At the restart Giovanardi and Neal passed Paul O’Neill, with Jordan following through on the following lap. With only one lap of racing remaining the VX Racing drivers had run out of time to make further progress and finished the race with Giovanardi claiming his third podium finish of the day, in third place, Neal securing fourth and Jordan following his team mates home in fifth place.

Giovanardi was pleased to have his title chase back on track, saying, “I’ve made up ground on Turkington and overtaken Matt in the Drivers’ Championship, so it has been a good weekend for me. The car is amazing; we’ve resolved the problems we had earlier in the season with running in hot weather and it’s been great to drive all day. In the third race I think we could have taken Turkington if I had had a few more corners. I’m confident for the future now with the improvements we’ve made.”

Neal reflected on his performance, explaining, “If only I had the car I had in the third race all weekend. We changed the engine after the second race and it was a completely different car. I equalled my qualifying time on the penultimate lap of the third race, even with a damaged car and worn tyres, It was frustrating then, as I thought I could have had a win, but just got bottled up behind Fabrizio and I didn’t want to try anything stupid and hang him out. The third race was a little consolation but this weekend hasn’t been good for our points haul, but there are four more rounds and plenty of points available, still a long way to go.”

Jordan summed up his weekend saying, “The final race of the day produced our best result, although I still didn’t have the ultimate pace at the start to go with the others. In the second race we had overheating and engine problems and something wrong with the rear of the car, so we ended up having to sort those problems out for the third race. I’m looking forward for us getting the car back and having a good look at it, strip it down, as we didn’t have the pace we had yesterday. I think maybe we lost our way a bit today after a disappointing first race, but it’s been a bit frustrating. We won’t look backwards now though, we’ll focus on the next round.”