Ollie Jackson has announced that he will remain with Motorbase Performance ahead of the forthcoming 2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season, piloting a newly built Ford Focus RS.
This will be Jackson’s seventh season in Britain’s premier tin-top racing series, having also raced for the Kent-based squad in last year’s campaign. He secured more points over the 30 races last year than he had done before in any of his previous six seasons.
He took 81 points from the 30 races, leading him to 19th position in the overall drivers’ standings and to eighth place in the Independent drivers’ championship.
Eyes On The Title
The 35-year old targets Independents’ glory ahead of this season, of which he enters full of confidence.
“The Independents’ Trophy title has to be my aim for the season,” said a confident Jackson. “I was thrilled to make the step up to Motorbase Performance last season, and it helped me to get better results than I have ever had in my BTCC career. I worked really hard with the team behind the scenes and it has improved me as a driver.”
He took an Independent race win at Snetterton last August and scored points in half the races he competed in. Another standout achievement from last year saw Jackson score points in nine consecutive races during the middle part of last year’s campaign.
Speaking about his best season in the category to date, Jackson said: “We focused on making sure I was more consistent over the race weekends, rather than just gunning for individual results, which is maybe what I had been guilty of in previous seasons. That really helped me step up and I was confident going into each race weekend.”
The Motorbase Performance squad last tasted Independent driver’s championship glory in 2016, when Andrew Jordan took the title.
Improving Further Into 2020
Team principal David Bartrum expressed his delight at retaining Jackson for the 2020 season.
“Ollie got to know the team well last season and he put in some really head-turning races – including finishing on a high with a sixth place at the finale at Brands Hatch,” said Bartrum.
“He spent a lot of time working with our data guys pushing himself to get even better in 2019, and that showed in his performance on-track. There were some tough weekends, but he is improving and having the consistency of the same guys around him going into 2020 will only continue in that upwards trajectory.”
The Kent-squad will field three drivers once again this year, with Bartrum stating that the team ‘are looking forward to making some more announcements in the next few weeks.’
“2020 is building up to be a very positive year for Motorbase,” added Bartrum.
Jackson and the rest of the team will take part in an extensive pre-season testing programme before the season opener at Donington Park on the 28th and 29th March.
