Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan extended his advantage in the Independents Championship with another strong on-track performance in the latest rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill.Andrew went into the weekend keen to strengthen his position at the head of the standings and with confidence high given the strong pace shown by his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus at the circuit in the past.The weekend didn’t start well when a driveshaft problem saw Andrew go off into the barriers in the opening free practice session, although he was soon up to speed in FP2 and then qualified in a solid sixth place; the second best front-wheel drive runner at a circuit that has traditionally favoured cars powered through the rear wheels.A strong opening lap in race one saw Andrew move ahead of the Subaru of Colin Turkington into fifth spot before the pair became embroiled in a long battle over the position, with Andrew eventually taking the flag in sixth place.The 2013 champion was in fine form in the early stages of race two and having moved up a position on the sixth lap, found himself as part of a train of five cars dicing for the lead. Unfortunately, contact from behind would instead see Andrew pushed back to eighth place on lap 18, which is where he finished with a somewhat battle-scarred car.Just missing out on the reverse grid draw for the final race of the weekend, Andrew was in the heart of the action in the early stages but again found himself under attack from his rivals, sustaining further damage and dropping him down outside the top ten.Fighting hard to recover, Andrew battled back into ninth place by the finish with his points haul from the weekend allowing him to extend his Independents’ Championship lead out to 25 points. Andrew also remains in a solid eighth place in the overall title race.“After the incident in first practice, we battled back well on Saturday with our best qualifying performance of the season, and I felt confident that we could pick up some strong finishes on race day,” he said. “With that in mind, I feel frustrated that we didn’t get the results that we deserved, or that we were capable of, given the pace in the car.“Race one went well and in the early stages of race two, we were showing that we had the pace to take the fight to the rear-wheel drive cars. Unfortunately, I then fell victim to some over aggressive driving that meant I was forced through the gravel and lost places, and the same thing then happened in race three, costing me multiple places again.“Despite that, I’ve managed to extend my lead in the Independents Championship and hopefully when we go to Rockingham in a few weeks time, Lady Luck will be shining on me a little bit more and we’ll be able to challenge for the results that we deserve.”