Clarke heads for home after Silverstone improvements
After his best weekend of the season so far, at Silverstone last month, BTCC debutant Jack Clarke heads for his home track of Brands Hatch this weekend, looking forward to the challenging circuit.
The 26-year-old's touring car journey began at Brands Hatch back in March on the shorter Indy circuit. At the very start of his BTCC career, Jack ran just outside the top 15 as he got to grips with elbows out tin-top style racing.
His progress in 2014 has been impressive as his form has improved round on round throughout his rookie year. At the second meeting at Donington Park, he broke into the points and over the latter part of the season he has been consistently finishing in the points-paying positions, dicing with the likes of reigning BTCC champion Andrew Jordan and previous champions Fabrizio Giovanardi and Gordon Shedden.
Silverstone saw a marked improvement for Clarke as he continued his touring car education. Two 13th-place finishes and a top ten result put the 26-year-old right into the racing mix at the sharp end of the 31-car field.
Clarke has notched up seven points finishes from the last eight races and as the BTCC returns to Brands, he hopes to continue his impressive form and edge his way further towards the front.
“The Grand Prix layout is one of my favourite circuits in the UK, if not the world. It has everything – it is a real drivers’ track.
"There are some lovely fast, flowing corners and some real testing ones including Paddock Hill Bend. It is really exhilarating, and certainly not for the feint-hearted!
“We hope it will be dry at Brands Hatch for everyone involved, as we have been quite lucky all season but we do go well in the wet if the rain does decide to make an appearance.
"I want to get the car set up and dialled in as soon as we can so that we can shift our focus to the strategy for Sunday’s races. The target is to recreate Silverstone’s performance, but this time I would like to get into the single digits.