Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jason Plato was fastest of all in the second free practice session ahead of qualifying. Dave Newsham was second fastest in the Team ES Racing Vauxhall with Andrew Jordan third in the Eurotech Honda.
Jason Plato set his best time of 1:57.569 within the first ten minutes of the session, which was over a second faster than his own qualifying lap record set at the Snetterton 300 circuit last year in the Chevrolet Cruze.
Dave Newsham was the closest to Plato and the fastest of the independents’ trophy drivers in second, just under half a second behind.
Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan was third quickest with Adam Morgan a strong fourth in the Speedworks Toyota, the only other car within a second of Plato’s time. This means there are three cars powered by the Swindon-built NGTC engine in the top four, with Andrew Jordan the interloper in the Neil Brown powered Honda.
Championship leader Matt Neal was fifth fastest, 1.1 seconds down on his title rival, whilst Gordon Shedden had to sit out the session as his car is still under repair after this morning’s practice fire.
Mat Jackson continued to improve in the NGTC-spec Ford Focus, though along with Tony Gilham in the Thorney Motorsport Vauxhall Insignia set the least amount of laps with just five. Jackson’s best time of 2:00.703 put him 16th on the timing sheets, 3.1 seconds off of Plato’s lap time.
Qualifying is next and gets underway at 15:15 BST.
