Rockingham BTCC: Jason Plato quickest again in second practice
Jason Plato was quickest in the second British Touring Car practice session at Rockingham on Saturday afternoon
Plato's MG, which also topped the earlier session, set several times good enough to top the timesheets.
The double champion's best, set in the first 10 minutes of the session, was almost a second faster than Plato's own 2011 Rockingham pole.
As before, Plato was chased by the Hondas. The Eurotech-run machine of Andrew Jordan was second, nearly half a second behind the MG, just ahead of the works cars of Gordon Shedden and points leader Matt Neal.
The fight to be best of the rest was tight and for much of the session Rob Collard's WSR BMW, the Speedworks Toyota of Adam Morgan and Rob Austin's Audi A4 were all covered by a tenth of a second.
In the closing moments, however, all were jumped by Mat Jackson. The Motorbase Ford driver had spent much of the session in the pits with steering problems, but came out to go fifth fastest late on.
Andy Neate, driving the second works MG, was also a late improver to go sixth.
Austin ended up seventh, while Jeff Smith made it four NGTC Civics in the top eight in the second Eurotech car.
BTCC rookie Howard Fuller was 19th in Tony Gilham Racing's Honda and ended his session in the Gracelands gravel.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Jason Plato MG 1m22.806s 2. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda 1m23.284s + 0.478s 3. Gordon Shedden Honda 1m23.342s + 0.536s 4. Matt Neal Honda 1m23.550s + 0.744s 5. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 1m23.598s + 0.792s 6. Andy Neate MG 1m23.619s + 0.813s 7. Rob Austin Austin Audi 1m23.672s + 0.866s 8. Jeff Smith Eurotech Honda 1m23.722s + 0.916s 9. Rob Collard WSR BMW 1m23.743s + 0.937s 10. Adam Morgan Speedworks Toyota 1m23.752s + 0.946s 11. Tom Onslow-Cole WSR BMW 1m24.030s + 1.224s 12. Nick Foster WSR BMW 1m24.182s + 1.376s 13. Aron Smith Motorbase Ford 1m24.196s + 1.390s 14. Dave Newsham ES Vauxhall 1m24.377s + 1.571s 15. Will Bratt Austin Audi 1m24.686s + 1.880s 16. Frank Wrathall Dynojet Toyota 1m24.989s + 2.183s 17. Chris James ES Vauxhall 1m26.053s + 3.247s 18. Ollie Jackson AmD Volkswagen 1m26.091s + 3.285s 19. Howard Fuller Gilham Honda 1m26.273s + 3.467s 20. Tony Hughes Speedworks Toyota 1m26.564s + 3.758s
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