BTCC

Turkington Quickest In Second BTCC Practice At Brands Hatch

2 Mins read

Reigning champion Colin Turkington topped the second practice session on Saturday prior to qualifying for the opening round of the 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch.

Cars once again took to a damp 1.2-mile Indy circuit in Kent for the second 40-minute practice session of the day, where another late flurry of changes among the leaderboard ended with Northern Irishman Turkington topping the session for BMR Racing by 0.066s from triple World Touring Car Championship champion, Andy Priaulx.

The top spot was swapped for much of the session between West Surrey Racing‘s Tordoff and the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type-R of Gordon Shedden, the BMW and Honda drivers improving their times as the 40 minutes passed.

Both knocked practice one pace-setter Tom Ingram off the top spot after the Speedworks Motorsport man again showed his pace in the damper conditions, although the real action came in the final six minutes of proceedings.

All four BMR Racing Volkswagen CC machines began to hurl themselves up the order, Jason Plato departing Tordoff’s BMW from the top of the times before team-mate Aron Smith then went even quicker than the double champion as they approached the 48s barrier.

That was soon broken by Turkington, his 48.940s effort beating the late charge by WSR’s Priaulx in the concluding seconds of the session, the VW man surviving a half-spin through Paddock Hill Bend along the way.

Smith, Plato and Tordoff rounded out the top five, the latter enjoying practice starts prior to the session along with his fellow rear-wheel drive competitors.

The top 17 cars where separated by less than a second in conditions still away from being 100 per cent, Warren Scott the last of those despite having crashed late in the running and caused heavy damage to the front end of his CC.

Adam Morgan‘s Mercedes was next up in sixth at the circuit he claimed his first BTCC win at last October, ahead of Triple Eight‘s Jack Goff who improved and finished seventh ahead of Shedden’s Honda, Rob Austin‘s Audi A4 and Matt Neal‘s Yuasa Civic Type-R rounding out the top 10.

Andrew Jordan ended 13th after turbo repairs paid off in his Triple Eight MG, while Ingram eventually fell down the times to 15th. Andy Wilmot‘s Proton Gen-2 ventured out for 10 laps meanwhile, having not featured in the day’s opening session.

Josh Cook enjoyed an indifferent session compared to the opening outing of the day, not setting a competitive lap in the Power Maxed Racing Chevy Cruze.

BTCC qualifying gets underway at 3:40pm and you can keep up with the action here at www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk, or via Twitter at @tcfBTCC.

Related posts
BTCC

Ash Sutton regains BTCC Drivers' Championship with rampant race one win at Brands Hatch

2 Mins read
Imperious Ash Sutton took the BTCC Drivers’ title for a fourth time in the first race at Brands Hatch GP finishing off an incredible season.
BTCC

Turkington tops Silverstone reverse grid race with 150th race win for BMW

2 Mins read
Four-time BTCC champion, Colin Turkington may be all but out of the BTCC Drivers’ Championship hunt, but concluded Silverstone with a milestone…
BTCC

Sutton seals mind blowing Silverstone win from 23rd on the grid

2 Mins read
Ash Sutton is at it again in a drive that may have just sealed another BTCC Drivers’ Championship for the imperious NAPA…