Jordan 'proud' to take BTCC title battle to the wire

2019 British Touring Car Championship runner-up Andrew Jordan admits his pride in taking the title battle down to the wire after missing out on a second drivers' championship by just two-points to BMW team mate Colin Turkington at Brands Hatch.

The 2013 BTCC champion went into the season deciding weekend 18-points in arrears of Turkington's championship lead. However, Jordan very nearly snatched the title away from Turkington during what proved be an astonishing day of racing at the season finale.

Jordan's 11th podium finish of the year in race two catapulted the BMW Pirtek Racing driver back into title contention after Turkington's hopes looked to be all but over following a controversial clash with Dan Cammish's Honda team mate Matt Neal.

As it stood heading into the finale, Jordan trailed the new championship leader Cammish leader by 13-points, while Turkington went into round 30 eight-points off the lead but starting 25th on the grid.

Despite the odds, a second title looked almost within reach for Jordan when Cammish dramatically plunged out of the race with two laps to go. But a herculean charge from Turkington to 25th to 6th was enough to ensure Jordan would finish runner-up with a fourth place finish in race three.

Jordan won more races (six) than any driver this season despite effectively missing a whole meeting at Donington Park, thanks to a heavy crash during the second weekend of the campaign.

The former champion ended an emotional weekend level on points with Honda driver Cammish, but finishes the year as runner-up as virtue of winning more races than his rival.

“I’m really proud of the way I’ve performed this year and of the job done by the team at BMW Pirtek Racing and WSR," said Jordan.

"Right now, I feel pretty gutted to have missed the championship by two points – which is one position in this final race – but we’ve won more races than anybody else, led more laps than anybody else and pushed Colin [Turkington] harder than any of his team-mates have in his title-winning seasons.

"We’ve done all that, and missed two races at Donington after the big crash in Race One there."

With the last round of the season marking the end of Jordan's alliance with long-term sponsor Pirtek, the BMW driver's short-term future in the series looks unclear but has made clear he wants to remain with the West Surrey Racing squad, with which whom he has spent the last three-seasons racing for.

"I’ve had three great years here, helped BMW win the Manufacturers’ title every time, and had stronger and stronger seasons. This is where I want to be next year and I hope we can all make it happen.”