Mat Jackson fishing for more success

Tue 15th September 2009 Warwickshire’s Mat Jackson heads to the Rockingham circuit this weekend for the penultimate round of the 2009 British Touring Car Championship and he’s on a high following success both on and off the track.

The Racing Silverline driver scored a superb double victory with his Chevrolet Lacetti in the last round at Silverstone and will receive the HiQ Champagne Moment award, as voted for by fans of the series. What’s more, he recently beat members of his RML team in a friendly fishing contest by catching a 16lb carp – proving that the 28-year-old just doesn’t know when to stop winning.

Racing Silverline scored a trio of wins at Silverstone, with Mat’s team-mate Jason Plato also taking to the top step of the podium, and a few of the team members decided to celebrate with a day of fishing. “Everybody was really chuffed after the last round as it was such a good set of results,” said Mat, who is based in Henley-In-Arden. “We made a 6am start and headed to a reservoir near Daventry. We all caught some fish but we reckon Jason had hooked the biggest… as his was the one that got away!”

Mat’s season is going from strength to strength – he currently lies fifth overall in the standings with 136 points - and having scored a win at Rockingham last year in a family-run BMW, he’s confident of another strong performance this Sunday. “I did not start the season so to get to this position is a miracle and it’s down to the hard work of everyone in the team,” said Mat. “It is frustrating, because with this pace we could have been challenging for the title if we’d been there from the word go. But I’m just going to go out and enjoy this weekend and try and pick up some more wins.”

Although Mat is yet to drive the Lacetti around Rockingham he believes the car should run well after a promising test there by RML earlier in the year. “It’s a strange circuit as there are some tight, technical parts as well as the section of oval,” said Mat. “I quite enjoy it and spent a lot of time there when I was instructing. I don’t think it will be the Lacetti’s strongest circuit, but it certainly won’t be its weakest. I know the team will turn out a good car and I just want to get stuck in.”