Gordon Shedden made a good start to his home weekend in the British Touring Car Championship by recording the fastest time in the first practice session at a wet Knockhill.
The Honda driver was 0.381 seconds quicker than his nearest rival, Tom Chilton of Aon Ford. Matt Neal was third fastest, a second shy of teammate Shedden, having recovered from a broken hand sustained in training since the last round at Snetterton.
Team Aon's Ford Focus showed good pace, with the team's second car of Tom Onslow-Cole just behind Neal in fourth. Next up was the stunningly quick Proton Gen-2 in the hands of Daniel Welch, who put the car fifth at the start of just its second meeting.
James Nash was sixth in his 888 Vauxhall Vectra, just 0.011s ahead of championship leader Mat Jackson of Airwaves Racing. Alex MacDowall was the best of the Chevrolets in eighth, with teammate Jason Plato languishing down in 19th place due to a reported electrical problem.
Frank Wrathall was ninth in his Dynojet Toyota Avensis, followed by Special Tuning's Tom Boardman. Martin Byford ended up 11th, impressive given that his AmD Milltek Volkswagen stopped out on track bringing his session to an early end, as well as causing a second red flag period. The earlier one had been after Nick Foster's WSR BMW came to a halt.
Irish debutant Aron Smith was 17th fastest in the second of the 888 Vectras.
