Three different drivers went fastest in all three practice sessions that took place on Good Friday at Silverstone ahead of the opening weekend of the 2018 TCR UK Series.
Experienced TCR driver Finlay Crocker set out his stall in the opening practice session, taking his Verizon Connect Racing 2018 Honda to the quickest time overall with a 1:03.314.
Whilst the former TCR Italy and TCR Germany driver went quickest, this was only a mere seven thousandths of a second clear of the Laser Tools Racing team-mates of Aiden Moffat and Derek Palmer Jnr.
Finlay Crocker was the first driver to go quickest in Fridays Practice Sessions. Credit: BRSCC / TCR UK
Crocker was very happy with his efforts after the first test session in the new Honda.
“The car performed really well this morning in the wet conditions,” explained the Scotsman. “As it dried it was reassuring to see everything went as we thought it would. Generally, I’m very happy as we’ve had some decent running and we keep making progress with the car.”
With Laser Tools Racing taking delivery of their two Alfa Romeo Guilietta’s only recently, the team used Friday as a chance to learn more about the cars. Moffat soon set the benchmark in Free Practice two where he went fastest with a 59.187 lap followed by the Pyro Motorsport entry of Ollie Taylor.
RX2 International Series regular Andreas Backman went third fastest as he makes his TCR debut with WestCoast Racing in the UK this weekend, adapting to the teams Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR.
Aiden Moffat set the fastest time on Friday during the second, drier Practice session. Credit: BRSCC / TCR UK
Moffat was very much happier in the drier conditions as he came to terms with his new Alfa Romeo.
“It got drier towards the end of session two so we decided to get a feel for the car – it’s handling fine and I’m feeling confident. We’ve just used today to learn about the car, we’ll sit down tonight with some data and then build from that,” said the BTCC Race Winner.
“We’re up there on the timesheets and we haven’t really given it maximum attack and there’s a lot more in the bag, which is a nice position to be in.”
Ollie Taylor finished the final practice session on top in what was a very wet finish to the days running for the TCR UK competitors. Credit: BRSCC / TCR UK
The final practice session of the day took place in difficult conditions as the rain hammered the Northamptonshire circuit. Backing up his impressive pace in the previous test day earlier in March, Taylor once again topped the wettest session of the day with a 1:04.808. Moffat and Stewart Lines completed the top three places.
Taylor explained about how he has been learning in the car after each chance to take it out on track.
“Every time we go out in the car we learn, which is really good. It’s always nice to feel ‘on the pace’, as we had quite ranging conditions today,” explained Taylor
The first two races of the 2018 TCR UK Series get underway on Easter Sunday. Credit: BRSCC / TCR UK
“I don’t think there’s too much to be looked into in regards to the times because a lot of people have been on different tyres all day. It was good to use the Yokohoma tyres and do some homework on how they react and it’s good to see pace from the other people as well and I’m really looking forward to the weekend.”
With the first of this weekends action underway already, Sunday is expected to be a mainly dry race day. The first TCR UK race gets underway at 2pm whilst the second TCR UK race with the reversed grid gets underway at 4pm on Sunday.
