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Croft practice 2: Neal well ahead

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As temperatures soared into the high twenties, reigning champion Matt Neal and his Team Halfords team-mate Gordon Shedden ended up at the top of the times in second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship practice at Croft. Hotter weather, which always affects both engine power and grip levels, meant lap times were some way off those seen in this morning’s first practice session.

But points leader Neal’s speed, in a Honda carrying maximum success ballast and on a circuit that requires good acceleration out of several slow to medium-speed corners, will surely be a concern for his rivals. He had also been second fastest in session one. Of note, his session one and two speed trap figures were identical and so were his positions through them, fifth and then 15th in both.

Neal set the pace with a time of 1m25.953s. That was some 0.378s faster than Shedden’s 1m26.331s lap (it was Shedden who was fastest through the first speed trap). SEAT’s Jason Plato and Team RAC MG driver Colin Turkington, third and second in the title race, were next up, closely followed by their respective team-mates James Thompson, the session one pace-setter, and Robert Collard. Indeed, less than a second split Shedden from 11th-placed Gavin Smith in Vauxhall’s Astra Sport Hatch.

Vauxhall’s highest-placed driver was Fabrizio Giovanardi – the Italian has had to use the two practice sessions to learn yet another circuit new to him. He had suffered two high-speed frights in session one when his car shot straight on exiting the high-speed Jim Clark Esses and straight afterwards was seen in deep discussion with his engineers who appear to have solved a handling problem on his car.

Youngsters Eoin Murray and Adam Jones both shone in second practice. Murray, this weekend making his BTCC debut in his Quest Racing Alfa Romeo 156, improved to 13th fastest and was within two seconds of the front-running pace and only 6/10ths of a second away from Mike Jordan’s tenth-placed Team Eurotech Honda. Jones, in Xero Competition’s Lexus IS200, was a very respectable 15th of the 20 runners, suggesting the team has made considerable strides with the car in a mid-week test at Oulton Park.