VX Racing in thick of title fight after Rockingham

VX Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi remains in the thick of the Drivers’ Championship title hunt after the penultimate round of the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham Motor Speedway.

A third place podium and a sixth place puts Giovanardi 13 points behind Championship leader, Colin Turkington, as they head for the final event of the season. BTCC veteran, Jason Plato, is also back in the fight after scoring two podiums at the Northamptonshire track. Andy Jordan helped his team mate in the first race, shadowing him throughout to take seventh place. An eighth place in the second race and a second place finish in the third, gave the 20-year-old driver his best weekend of the season.

Matt Neal’s bad luck followed him from the last round at Silverstone to this weekend’s event, with a practice accident putting him down the order for qualifying and another in the first race putting him out of it after less than a lap. The Triple Eight mechanics worked tirelessly to get him back out for the third race, and miraculously worked quickly enough for him to have a few shakedown laps at the end of the second race.

Race 1

Giovanardi lined up in seventh place on the grid for the first race, with Jordan in 11th position and Neal in 15th. However, Neal’s 400th BTCC race was shortlived, when Anthony Reid put him on the grass before turn two, ending with Neal locking up for the corner and slewing into the side of Jonny Herbert. Substantial damage to the front end of the Vauxhall left Neal sidelined for this race and gave the Triple Eight crew a tough task to make the repairs in time for the next race.

Giovanardi maintained position for the majority of the race, continually challenging Paul O’Neill ahead, finally snatching sixth from him with two laps remaining. A four second gap to fifth was too big for Giovanardi with so little time left but he was able to close it down to two seconds by the chequered flag. Jordan played rear gunner to Giovanardi throughout the race, skilfully holding off the challenge of Gordon Shedden behind and following Giovanardi past O’Neill in the final stages to finish seventh.

Race 2

Giovanardi made a strong start in the second race, moving up to fifth position by the end of the opening lap. On lap four Giovanardi benefited from cars ahead squabbling for position to sneak through into third place, a position he held until the chequered flag. His main title rival, Turkington, finished just behind so the gap between the VX Racing driver and Turkington narrowed to five points. Jordan was in eighth spot after his first lap, but a swipe from O’Neill during knocked his tracking out and the youngster had to contend with a badly handling car throughout the race, finally finishing eighth. Neal did not take the green flag, with the crew still working on the first race damage repairs, but the Triple Eight mechanics were able to put Neal out on track for the last few laps and he crossed the line in 18th place.

Race 3

The reverse grid draw for the third race produced a front row start for Jordan, with the VX Racing driver lining up alongside Tom Chilton. Giovanardi started from the fourth row in seventh place, with Turkington one place ahead. Jordan made a good start off the line, slotting in behind Chilton and staying with him in the early stages. He passed Chilton for the lead, but the BMW of Jelley then took Chilton to lie behind Jordan. Jordan defended hard, but finally had to relinquish the lead to the faster car of Jelley. Despite being challenged hard by Plato in third, the VX Racing driver held him at bay to take his sixth podium of the season. Giovanardi raced hard from the off, improving to sixth and then briefly into fourth when the front pack bunched up, but a hard-charging and overly aggressive Herbert hit Giovanardi hard and put his tracking out. With a barely driveable car Giovanardi was powerless to stay with the front runners, finally finishing in 11th place.

Neal’s final race of the day was as unlucky as the start of it. Having climbed up to 12th position he then suffered gearbox problems which ended his race.

Giovanardi said of his Rockingham weekend, “I was clawing back the points in the first two races, and in the third it was looking good, but then Herbert ruined it all. He’s a guest driver, he’s not involved in the championship, so I don’t know why he had to smash into me, many times. After that, my car was completely destroyed. It is frustrating when it happens like that, but when you lose out like that, to unprofessional driving, it makes it all the more difficult.”

Neal summed up his weekend saying, “It was a bit of a write off, character building is how I can only describe it – I can’t have been wearing the right lucky underpants. From the point when Reidy hit me it was game over. I think they were worried about me getting to Turkington, not that I was going to do anything when I got to him, but that’s his job, that’s what he’s there to do and he did it quite nicely. To top it all, I had transmission failure in the third race.”

Jordan had one of the best weekend’s of his season, saying, “It was a bit like Top Gun in the first race, playing wingman to Fabrizio. I had a good car and I could easily stay with him so that was good. In the second race we had tracking problems after being hit by Paul (O’Neill), so just did the best we could and then in the third race it came together better. I thought at one point I could get the win, but Jelley had the better pace and it was challenge enough to take the second. I was pleased to get the lead off Chilton, but when Jelley got through, I knew it was going to be hard to hold on to it. I put up a fight but ultimately the BMWs had the pace on us today.”

The championship deciding final round of this year’s BTCC takes place at Brands Hatch in Kent from 4-5 October.