Mat Jackson planning a rain dance

Sat 1st August 2009 Warwickshire racing star Mat Jackson will be doing a rain dance this evening ahead of lining up on the fourth row of the grid for the first of tomorrow’s [Sunday’s] three HiQ British Touring Car Championship races at Snetterton.

The Racing Silverline driver put his RML-run Chevrolet Lacetti in seventh position in today’s qualifying session at the Norfolk circuit with a best time of 1m12.672s, which was under half a second off the pole time. He’s hoping to go even better, however, if the predicted downpour transpires on Sunday.

“We made a big improvement from the two practice sessions held earlier in the day,” said Mat, who is based in Henley-In-Arden. “In qualifying I set the fastest time of anyone in sector one, but I was losing the time in the second sector. I’ll look at the data and try to improve, although it’s good to be well within the top ten. I know that all the fans heading to Snetterton won’t agree with me, but I am definitely hoping for rain tomorrow.”

Mat, 28-years-old, has already had a high-speed experience on water this week, as he took to the seas off the Norfolk coast on Friday [31 July] with a rare trip on the Caister lifeboat – the fastest in the country. “It was fantastic fun and I’ve got total admiration for the volunteers who run the lifeboat,” said Mat. “It’s also quick – I think we got up to around 45mph.”

In what has been a busy week, Mat and team-mate Jason Plato have also announced a major new sponsor, the car buying website Matchthedeal.com. “The new website is a great idea,” said Mat. “It gives prospective buyers their best chance to find the vehicle of their choice at the price they can afford. It means they don’t have to haggle with experienced dealers and in financial times like these it’s going to be a godsend to people.”