Henley-in-Arden's Mat Jackson can be crowned the 2006 Blaupunkt SEAT Cupra Champion at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent this coming Sunday 24 September. If Mat does win the title, he will also have earned the Champion's prize of a cheque for £100,000 from SEAT UK - the biggest cash prize in British motor sport. Mat will be in action once more in his Whale Tankers-sponsored SEAT Cupra, run by his family's Jacksons Motorsport team. In it this season, he has won ten of the 14 rounds held so far and currently holds a 49-point lead at the top of the championship. If that gap is 41 points or more after Brands Hatch's two races on Sunday, he will have provisionally won the championship.
This weekend's latest two rounds will be held around Brands Hatch's short Indy circuit where Mat won both the season's opening rounds back in April. He has led the championship ever since. Mat says: "It was a great start to the season and we achieved those wins with a car that wasn't quite set-up to my liking. In the six months since, we've got it working much better so I think we'll be in a strong position to challenge for victories again. "Of course I'm not going to take any silly risks with so much at stake, but I would like to win the title while still racing for wins - not by sitting back and collecting points. That's not what the fans come to see. Besides, I always feel more comfortable leading from the front. You slip back into the pack and you run a greater risk of something going wrong." Mat's and the Jacksons Motorsport team's big Brands Hatch weekend will begin on Friday with two test sessions in which they'll seek to fine-tune their car to suit the circuit's characteristics.
On Saturday come the two qualifying sessions that will decide the starting grid order for Sunday's pair of races that will be staged in front of a huge British Touring Car Championship crowd. "It's going to be a very exciting weekend for everyone involved in the team," adds Mat. "Brands Hatch is a world famous motor racing circuit with an amazing history so doing well around there is always extra special. The circuit always pulls a big crowd and the atmosphere is second to none. I'm really looking forward to it." Mat's Brands Hatch timetable: Friday 22 September: TESTING, 09.55-10.40 & 13.55.14.45 Saturday 23 September: QUALIFYING, 10.50-11.10 & 15.00-15.20 Sunday 24 September: RACE DAY, 10.35 (Race 1, 20 laps) & 14.30 (Race 2, 20 laps) Mat's two races at Brands Hatch on Sunday 24 September can be watched live on satellite television channel Motors TV (channel 413 or 545 on NTL3).
