Alex MacDowall finished top of the timesheets in the World Touring Car Championship’s first ever session in the United States.
The Cumbrian sat in first place when the 30 minute session was red flagged with a few minutes remaining after series debutant Felice Tedeschi crashed the second Proteam Racing BMW he is driving this weekend.
bamboo engineering Chevrolet driver MacDowall was 0.328 seconds clear of Pepe Oriola. Oriola’s Tuenti Racing Team enjoyed a strong session with its second driver Fernando Monje in third place.
Yvan Muller was fourth in the best of the factory Chevrolets as the brand’s home race weekend got underway. Gabriele Tarquini was fifth in his Lukoil SEAT, just ahead of the other two RML-run Chevrolets of Rob Huff and Alain Menu.
Next up came four BMWs driven by Stefano D’Aste, Alberto Cerqui, Norbert Michelisz and Mehdi Bennani ahead of the SEAT of Tiago Monteiro in the Portuguese driver’s final appearance before switching to Honda for Japan.
Aon Ford drivers James Nash and Tom Chilton were 14th and 18th with Tom Boardman 19th. American Robb Holland was 21st after his late call-up to be MacDowall’s team-mate at bamboo, 3.9 seconds off MacDowall’s benchmark.