The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship starts this weekend at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit and the first two practice sessions of the year have indicated how qualifying today and the three races tomorrow may pan out.
Practice One
Tom Ingram was fastest in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis in first practice closely followed by Jack Goff in the Wix Racing with Eurotech Honda Civic Type R.
The leader of this session comes as no surprise to fans of the BTCC as Tingram has often been one of the fastest drivers at Brands Hatch at the start of the season and this result proves he has the pace to possibly go for a hat-trick of season opening wins.
Up and down the times, Tom Chilton came third followed by the Honda of Matt Simpson. Defending champion Ashley Sutton finished thirteenth whilst his championship rival from last season Colin Turkington came in ninth.
The new Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R’s had a varied session with Dan Cammish finishing ahead of Matt Neal in sixth and sixteenth respectively.
Practice 2
Eurotech racing led a one-two in practice two with Jack Goff 0.075 ahead of Brett Smith in the sister car. The top thirty cars were all covered by less than a second.
It was a Honda fest for the top six positions most of the session until practice one leader Ingram placed his Avensis in fourth before the session ended.
There wasn’t an appearance for BMW or Subaru in the top ten, Turkington was suffering from overheating issues which meant he didn’t get much track time.
With practice out of the way, focus is now on qualifying which starts at 15:15 and is streamed live on itv.com
