Toyota were denied a 1-2-3 lockout of the top three in the second BTCC practice session at Silverstone, Dave Newsham going one better to head into qualifying a contender for pole.
The second 40-minute practice session of the day started in a similar fashion to the opening encounter, with first practice pace-setter Jason Plato heading the times after 10 minutes.
The MG KX Momentum Racing driver then found his time coming under pressure as the second half of the session approached, the Dynojet Toyota Avensis of Frank Wrathall moving up to second place and then demoting Plato to second with a time 0.2s quicker than the MG.
Wrathall’s time looked secure for much of the remaining 20 minutes of the session, until another Toyota Avensis spoiled Dynojet’s party as Newsham’s Speedworks entry then went fastest.
The Inverness driver’s time of 58.694s was not to be beaten, leaving a Toyota 1-2 with Wrathall just 0.021s behind the Speedworks man.
“It’s going really well today”, said Newsham. “We didn’t expect this, we have come here with a completely different setup and I was wondering if we would be far off, but the car’s been mega!”
Toyota almost had a 1-2-3, but for Sam Tordoff denying that outcome in the last few minutes of the session with a time that bumped Adam Morgan‘s Ciceley Racing Avensis down to fourth.
Plato finished fifth in a more conservative session focused on Sunday set-up, while the star of the session was Warren Scott, finishing just 0.388s off Newsham’s time in the Team HARD/BMR Restart Volkswagen Passat.
Matt Neal ended as the top Honda Civic in seventh place, ahead of another impressive Team HARD performance from Howard Fuller in eighth and their other Vauxhall Insignia of Jack Goff in a strong session for Tony Gilham‘s team.
The top 10 was rounded out by Dan Welch, pushing through the pain barrier despite an injured coxis. Gordon Shedden finished 12th, while championship leader Andrew Jordan was 14th in his Pirtek Racing Honda.
– Qualifying gets underway at 15:40, and you can follow the action with thecheckeredflag or on Twitter by @tcfBTCC.
