BTC Racing's Smiley tops BTCC Donington Park free practice running
BTC Racing driver Chris Smiley topped the British Touring Car Championship free practice running at Donington Park as drying conditions favoured the front-wheel drive cars
Heavy wind helped to clear the track entering the final 10 minutes of the second session and meant lap times fell by seven seconds, with Smiley coming out on top with a 1min12.622sec - three tenths clear of Adam Morgan.
After completing a wet weather test at Donington Park, Dan Cammish was out of the blocks fastest and on only his second lap set a 1m19.106s in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.
But from there drivers constantly swapped at the top, as Tom Ingram, Jason Plato and Ashley Sutton all improved.
That was until Cammish became the first driver to drop into the 1m16s - albeit only by 0.012s - when improved grip levels brought the front-wheel drive runners into play.
With a dry line emerging Rory Butcher pitted for slicks and took his AmD Tuning Civic top, almost two seconds clear as he set a 1m14.137s.
He was caught with five minutes to go, as Smiley moved top and was followed by a recovering Morgan - the Mercedes A-Class runners having previously struggled for pace on the slippery surface.
Butcher held onto a top three spot from Team Hard duo Jack Goff and Bobby Thompson.
Power Maxed Racing's Rob Collard impressed in sixth ahead of Smiley's team-mate and championship leader Josh Cook.
The Subaru Levorg of Ashley Sutton was ninth and the top rear-wheel driver runner. He separated the Volkswagen CCs of Michel Crees and Carl Boardley to round out a successful session for the four-car Team Hard attack - although Boardley did cause a red flag in the final few seconds having beached his car in the gravel.
Cammish ended up 13th ahead of team-mate Neal, while Jason Plato was 17th from Tom Chilton and Sam Tordoff.
After winning on only its second outing at Brands Hatch, the new BMW 330i M Sport was just 23rd with Andrew Jordan as defending champion Colin Turkington was 25th, two spots ahead of third WSR driver Tom Oliphant.
But the team chose not to push in the drier conditions at the end of the session and so slipped down in the positions.
Jordan had ended the first practice session fastest, however, narrowly edging out Sutton by just 0.05s from Dan Cammish and Tom Ingram.
In free practice one, the red flag came out after only 30 seconds as wind blew two tyre stacks across the chicane.
Nicholas Hamilton then stopped running again when he put his Motorbase Ford Focus RS into the gravel at Redgate.
Practice one times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 1m18.892s | - |
2 | Ash Sutton | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m18.942s | 0.050s |
3 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m19.074s | 0.182s |
4 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 1m19.101s | 0.209s |
5 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 1m19.250s | 0.358s |
6 | Jason Plato | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m19.417s | 0.525s |
7 | Chris Smiley | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m19.556s | 0.664s |
8 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m19.632s | 0.740s |
9 | Sam Tordoff | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m19.658s | 0.766s |
10 | Jack Goff | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m19.757s | 0.865s |
11 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m19.765s | 0.873s |
12 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 1m19.815s | 0.923s |
13 | Ollie Jackson | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m19.889s | 0.997s |
14 | Matt Simpson | Simpson Racing | Honda | 1m19.899s | 1.007s |
15 | Tom Oliphant | WSR | BMW | 1m19.949s | 1.057s |
16 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m20.014s | 1.122s |
17 | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m20.082s | 1.190s |
18 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m20.084s | 1.192s |
19 | Rob Collard | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m20.103s | 1.211s |
20 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 1m20.137s | 1.245s |
21 | Nicolas Hamilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m20.149s | 1.257s |
22 | Jake Hill | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m20.308s | 1.416s |
23 | Senna Proctor | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m20.328s | 1.436s |
24 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m20.690s | 1.798s |
25 | Carl Boardley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m20.945s | 2.053s |
26 | Daniel Rowbottom | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m21.247s | 2.355s |
27 | Michael Crees | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m21.276s | 2.384s |
28 | Rob Smith | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 1m21.949s | 3.057s |
29 | Sam Osborne | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 1m22.316s | 3.424s |
30 | Mark Blundell | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m22.602s | 3.710s |
Practice two times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Chris Smiley | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m12.622s | - |
2 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m12.923s | 0.301s |
3 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m13.100s | 0.478s |
4 | Jack Goff | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m13.334s | 0.712s |
5 | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m13.441s | 0.819s |
6 | Rob Collard | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m13.782s | 1.160s |
7 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m14.848s | 2.226s |
8 | Michael Crees | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m15.143s | 2.521s |
9 | Ash Sutton | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m15.429s | 2.807s |
10 | Carl Boardley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m16.038s | 3.416s |
11 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 1m16.174s | 3.552s |
12 | Matt Simpson | Simpson Racing | Honda | 1m16.195s | 3.573s |
13 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m16.988s | 4.366s |
14 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m17.068s | 4.446s |
15 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 1m17.210s | 4.588s |
16 | Jake Hill | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m17.690s | 5.068s |
17 | Jason Plato | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m18.012s | 5.390s |
18 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m18.606s | 5.984s |
19 | Sam Tordoff | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m18.655s | 6.033s |
20 | Daniel Rowbottom | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m18.709s | 6.087s |
21 | Senna Proctor | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m18.854s | 6.232s |
22 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 1m19.037s | 6.415s |
23 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 1m19.126s | 6.504s |
24 | Ollie Jackson | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m19.185s | 6.563s |
25 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 1m19.204s | 6.582s |
26 | Nicolas Hamilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m19.443s | 6.821s |
27 | Tom Oliphant | WSR | BMW | 1m19.667s | 7.045s |
28 | Rob Smith | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 1m19.981s | 7.359s |
29 | Mark Blundell | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m19.984s | 7.362s |
30 | Sam Osborne | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 1m20.169s | 7.547s |
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