BTCCBMW West Surrey Racing are proud to reveal the BMW 125i M Sport to be raced by Andrew Jordan in the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. The WSR-designed-and-built car was officially unveiled at Europe’s largest racing car show, Autosport International, in Birmingham on Thursday January 12. Jordan, the 2013 BTCC drivers’ champion, joined Dick Bennetts, Team Principal of WSR, the reigning series champion constructor and team, to reveal the BMW to the media and public. Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champions WSR had an excellent three days of testing prior to the show with new signing Andrew Jordan completing many miles of important winter running. Andrew, who will race for WSR in the BTCC for the next two seasons, got behind the wheel of his BMW 125i M Sport for the first time at Brands Hatch on Tuesday and the 2013 series champion completed further running at Donington Park on Thursday and at Silverstone on Friday. With the BMW running in an interim livery this week, Andrew – who has never raced a rear-wheel-drive touring car – gained valuable experience of the machine that guided WSR to the BTCC teams’ and constructors’ titles in 2016. After completing 119 laps in tricky and changeable track conditions at Brands Hatch – the venue for the opening round of the 2017 BTCC – on Tuesday, WSR then chalked up a further eighty laps at Donington and even more at Silverstone as a variety of set-up options were evaluated. Jordan also sampled Dunlop’s new-specification tyres,
which will become mandatory in next year’s series. Jordan said: “I’m really pleased with how it’s gone this week with the BMW. From day one at Brands Hatch the 125i M Sport felt very user-friendly and it didn’t take me very long to feel at home – despite some changeable weather. You can really feel the level of engineering that’s gone into the this car and that’s made things much easier to adapt to, especially as I’m also learning a rear-wheeldrive touring car after spending my entire BTCC race career in front-wheel-drive machinery. It’s also been great to start working with the engineers and mechanics and start building relationships with everybody in the team.” Dick Bennetts, WSR Team Principal, said: “It will hopefully pay off when you can start your winter testing programme before Christmas, so to have three days of solid running this week and to give Andrew some experience at three different circuits with the BMW is definitely going to benefit him and the team. The car is still in 2016 trim, as we still have to convert it to use all of the mandatory components for next season, but we’re not far off and this week has helped us to see where we are and given us lots of very useful data that we’ll now analyse.” Website: http://www.wsr-racing.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/West-SurreyRacing-262917063914071/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_WSR
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