Reigning British Touring Car champion, Andrew Jordan completed his maiden laps in one of Triple Eight Race Engineering’s BMW Z4 GT3 on Tuesday at Silverstone circuit, as team and driver evaluated each other ahead of a potential tie-up next season.
Both team and driver emerged pleased with the test, which saw the 25-year-old Pirtek-backed Red Bull athlete progress throughout his fifteen laps on the 3.66 mile Grand Prix layout, consistently setting fast times within the team’s targets.
Ian Harrison, Triple Eight’s Team Principal remarked:
“We’ve been keen to have Andy in the car, he’s an intelligent young racer who can adapt his driving for different disciplines. His performance today confirmed our thoughts, and we’ll be discussing potential options to get him into one of our cars next year.”
Andrew Jordan:
“It’s phenomenal. It’s got a little less power in a straight line than the Aston Martin, but it changed direction better and felt more like a go-kart; it just didn’t have the power out of the corners that the Aston does, which you’d expect from a 4.4-litre V8 compared to a 6-litre V12. “Looking at the data I wasn’t far off where I needed to be. I think if I went at it again I’d expect to be even closer, nibbling away at the breaking distances etc. would help me find a few tenths for certain.”
Having completed laps in the Aston Martin and Nissan GT3s already this year, this was Jordan’s first outing in the BMW Z4, after a test four weeks ago had to be rescheduled.
“It’s a really good car. It takes me out of my comfort zone having driven touring cars, and it’ll take some learning, but that’s why it was good to have Joe (Osborne) here today to help me with the data. I feel like I made progress in just an hour or so. I’m definitely keen to have another go! ”I’ve said before I’m keen to some endurance races and we’ve been talking about a few things, but there’s nothing concrete yet.”
Andrew’s father Mike Jordan was a key player in DSC’s early years, taking race and championship wins in Porsche’s TVRs and the mighty Lister Storm in which he won the 2001 British GT Championship with David Warnock.
