The Donington Circuit in Derbyshire delivered a pole position and two points paying positions for the Pirtek team in the penultimate round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. The team and driver Andrew Jordan finished in the top ten in the final two races on Sunday, after running in the top three during the last race and starting the race from pole position.

Saturday's 30 minute qualifying session favoured the Team AON Fords as they locked out the front of the grid. But a strong session from Jordan in the Pirtek Vauxhall Vectra rewarded him with a sixth place grid position, giving him the accolade of 'best of the rest' outside of the manufacturer-backed teams and placing him right in the midst of the Championship battle.

Race one at Donington Park saw Jordan running in fourth place at the start after passing championship protagonists Matt Neal and Jason Plato into the first corner. The chasing Honda Civic of Neal was right on the back of the Pirtek car and as they went into the first corner Neal pushed Jordan wide letting both the Honda and the Chevrolet of Plato through. After a brief safety car period, the cars were once again bunched closely together, ahead, Plato nudged the rear of Neal's car coming into the final corner, pushing him into the large foam safety barriers, sending them scattering across the track. Jordan was hit by one of the flying foam bales and in the chaos, was struck from behind by Mat Jackson, sending him into the barriers with Plato and Rob Collard ending his race.

In race two Jordan moved from the back of the grid up to 15th - making up five places on only the first lap. A jump start penalty by Matt Neal in the Honda and a spin from Dave Pinkney promoted Jordan further and he was up to 12th by lap two. Collard in the WSR BMW gave Jordan a close run for several corners, and made the move stick before Jordan proceeded to pass Alex MacDowall, Tom Boardman and James Nash giving Jordan eighth place, but he was unable to withstand the challenge from Neal in the latter stages of the race and eventually finished in ninth.

The grid for the final race of the day is decided by a reverse grid draw, the top nine were reversed giving Jordan pole position for the final outing at Donington. A storming first lap gave Jordan an advantage over Neal who was closely followed by Collard for the early part of the race. On lap four Jordan had a problem with oversteer and as he headed into turn one the car snapped away underneath him and Neal was able to pass, followed by Collard. For the remainder of the race Jordan was shadowed by Championship leader Plato. On the penultimate lap the Chevrolet driver made a late lunge down the inside of the Pirtek car, Jordan held his line for the following few corners but was pushed wide and onto the grass, losing track position, rejoining in seventh.

Jordan added after the three races, "Donington didn't reap the results I would have hoped, especially with the pole position in the final race. After the mammoth effort the Pirtek Racing boys put in after race one to get the car back out for the second race of the day, I would have loved to reward them with a podium.

"We made a few set up changes on the car for the last race to try and loosen it up a little and capitalize on the pole position, but we probably went a bit too far and it was quite a handful. With the new TOCA Turbo engine, we need a lot of engine cooling, but we reduced the ducting to the brakes which has compromised the car under braking into the corners. When Plato came up alongside us at the hairpin the best I could do was to try and stick it out and go along with him but unfortunately he pushed me out wide and onto the grass.

"It's not the result we wanted to be honest, I'm pleased we've scored more points, and once again we have shown we can run up at the front and hold our own, but the season has just gone too quickly. We need a good result a Brands Hatch to end on a high."

The next and final round of the Dunlop MSA BTCC takes place at Brands Hatch Circuit in Kent, in just under three weeks time.