Reigning champion Andrew Jordan continued seemingly from where he left off in 2013, topping the official media day test session at Donington Park on the eve of the British Touring Car Championship’s new season.
In a déjà vu of 12 months ago, The Pirtek Racing driver topped the timesheets during the four-hour session on Tuesday, 18 March, with a 1m11.087s lap the clincher to keep fellow Honda driver Gordon Shedden a miniscule one thousandth of a second at bay as the Scot led the chase in his factory Honda Civic Tourer.
Shedden’s outing on the circuit – Donington affected by a shower as proceedings got underway – was not all rosy however despite his new car showing promising pace, as he had caused an early red flag after skating off on oil dropped by another car, thankfully escaping damage.
Alain Menu starred in the BMR Racing Volkswagen Passat CC, ending third and just 0.139s shy of Jordan’s session-topping effort to confirm his double champion status.
Adam Morgan again showed the pace of his new WIX Racing Mercedes A-Class by surging to the fourth quickest time of the day, while Sam Tordoff was the first of the Triple Eight MGs to appear on the timesheets by rounding out he top five ahead of the second Civic Tourer of Matt Neal in sixth.
Honda’s Civic Tourer impressed (Photo: btcc.net)
Menu’s team-mate Aron Smith confirmed a strong session for BMR with seventh to assert the Irishman’s optimism for the season ahead, while the WSR BMW 125i duo of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard were next up ahead of rookie Tom Ingram, rounding out the top 10 for Speedworks.
Fabrizio Giovanardi‘s session warranted 12th place for Motorsbase Performance, while his new team-mate Mat Jackson was 24th having been announced moments before the action began.
Triple Eight’s Marc Hynes racked up the most laps of the day with 64 to his name, while Chris Stockton was the culprit for a further two red flags during the day after first coming to a halt at the end of the pitlane, then later suffering an off at McLeans in his BTC Racing Chevrolet Cruze during the fourth hour.
Dan Welch and Ollie Jackson both did not compete in the session as the Welch Motorsport duo await the completion of their pair of Protons for Brands Hatch, while Lea Wood’s Toyota Avensis is yet to receive an engine.
Rotek Racing‘s Robb Holland also sat out the session due to requiring further refinements to the squad’s new Audi A3 saloon, while BMR’s Jack Goff was present, but intends to test at Silverstone next week as an alternative.
BTCC Media Day Test Results:
1) Andrew Jordan (Eurotech Honda) – 1m11.087s
2) Gordon Shedden (Honda) – 1m11.088s +0.001s
3) Alain Menu (BMR Volkswagen) +0.139s
4) Adam Morgan (Ciceley Mercedes) +0.227s
5) Sam Tordoff (Triple Eight MG) +0.354s
6) Matt Neal (Honda) +0.387s
7) Aron Smith (BMR Volkswagen) +0.483s
8) Colin Turkington (WSR BMW) +0.654s
9) Rob Collard (WSR BMW) +1.005s
10) Tom Ingram (Speedworks Toyota) +1.014s
11) Marc Hynes (Triple Eight MG) +1.020s
12) Fabrizio Giovanardi (Motorbase Ford) +1.088s
13) Nick Foster (WSR BMW) +1.396s
14) Dave Newsham (AmD Ford) +1.503s
15) Martin Depper (Eurotech Honda) +1.729s
16) Glynn Geddie (United Autosports Toyota) +1.884s
17) James Cole (United Autosports Toyota) +2.447s
18) Jack Clarke (Motorbase Ford) +2.661s
19) Hunter Abbott (RAR Audi) +3.268s
20) Simon Belcher (Handy Toyota) +4.647s
21) Rob Austin (RAR Audi) +5.877s
22) Jason Plato (Triple Eight MG) +8.800s
23) Aiden Moffat (Moffat Chevrolet) +8.821s
24) Mat Jackson (Motorbase Ford) +9.591s
25) Warren Scott (BMR Vauxhall) +11.068s
26) Chris Stockton (BTC Chevrolet) +13.181s
