Thruxton was the destination for several British Touring Car Championship teams on Tuesday (18 February) as testing continued at a wet and windy Hampshire circuit.
The tricky conditions were greeted by no fewer than seven BTCC squads at Thruxton, joined by a selection of support series teams and drivers also racking up the pre-season mileage.
Amongst the BTCC machinery venturing onto the track included newcomers United Autosports, the returning James Cole and rookie Glynn Geddie delivering the driving duties of the team’s Toyota Avensis in a smooth day of running for the former Team HARD man and his new squad.
The biggest drama of the day came for the unfortunate Aiden Moffat, the young Scot crashing heavily in his Chevrolet Cruze while trying to avoid a stray rabbit on the circuit. A sore Moffat rebuffed concerns on Twitter, saying: “Thanks for the concern guys. Bit sore but nothing bad. Also the car will be okay. That’s the last time I swerve to avoid a bunny rabbit!”
Four Honda Civics were out in force, Andrew Jordan and Martin Depper both out on track in their Pirtek Racing machines, while the works Honda Yuasa Racing squad continued progress of their Civic Tourer which was shared between Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden.
The team confirmed their second Tourer will soon be ready to also begin testing, Neal reportedly suffering a minor altercation on track along the way but otherwise the pair’s runs in the new car were productive. Honda also brought their 2013-specification Civic along to allow drivers to gain mileage while out of the Tourer, although the older car briefly caught fire in the pits with Shedden at the wheel.
West Surrey Racing were also present with their trio of 125i BMWs driven by their recently re-signed line-up of Colin Turkington, Rob Collard and Nick Foster, while Triple Eight’s Sam Tordoff and Mark Hynes also joined proceedings alongside Rob Austin in his Exocet Racing Audi A4.