Over the coming weeks, we’re going to be looking back at some of the defining moments of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship Season. The first part of our review looks at the stellar start made by 2013 champion Andrew Jordan. It had been an enthralling finale weekend six months prior to the 2014 curtain-raiser, and after the first few events it seemed as though the momentum was very much still with the Pirtek Racing ace.

Pole position on a sunny April afternoon was the perfect start for Jordan, who had joined the ranks of BTCC champions in torrential rain at the same venue the previous October. A sensational race day performance saw the Honda Civic driver hold off the attentions of Brands Hatch master Jason Plato – the driver who has won more races than anyone else at the iconic circuit – in the first two BTCC battles of 2014. He was clearly delighted with the performance, and said at the end of the day, “To put it on pole, take race one and then race two with full weight on – I’m really pleased! This is what we do it for – to win.”

Qualifying seventh for the next round at Donington Park, Jordan displayed the same consistency and determination that took him to the 2013 crown, scoring a trio of top six results including a podium in race one.

Thruxton – a historically happy hunting ground for the Hondas – was a near-perfect event for the Red Bull-backed racer. His second pole position of the season was followed by a win, a second place and fourth in race three, making him by far the highest-scoring driver of the weekend.

This gave him an eight-point advantage over Honda Yuasa Racing’s Gordon Shedden, who had taken the first podium and victory for the new-for-2014 Honda Civic Tourer by that stage, with other title contenders Colin Turkington, Matt Neal and Jason Plato close behind the title fight was coming to the boil…

We’ll be looking back at the next highlight on btcc.net next week…