Photo: BTCC media

Giovanardi, Vauxhall top Rockingham test

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Vauxhall’s dramatic new Vectra has drawn first blood in this year’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship by topping the times in the series’ opening official test session of 2007.

Fabrizio Giovanardi set the pace with a lap time of 1m24.806s around Rockingham’s 1.94-mile International Super Sports Car circuit – the lay-out the BTCC grid will race on when it returns here for its rounds on 22 April.

The Italian was a mere 0.066s ahead of the Team Eurotech with John Guest-Speedfit Honda Integra of Mike Jordan. Colin Turkington, in Team RAC’s new BMW 320si E90, was next up on 1m24.938s, the last driver to break the 1m25-seconds barrier.

Giovanardi told BTCC.net “I’m really confident because I feel a really good car (in the Vectra). I don’t care about the time too much… what I’m more impressed about is that the drop-off in performance over longer runs is nowhere near as bad as the Astra we raced last year. That is a good sign for the races.”

But the 40-year-old urged caution, adding: “Team Halfords has not even run its Civic today and we know that Team RAC is only just beginning with the BMW. Today is only really an indicator of what might happen.

And said Giovanardi: “I think this circuit is going to be great for the crowds when we race here – it is really wide and I think there will be a lot of overtaking and excitement. I hope to see many people here in April.”

Behind the top three, SEAT team-mates Darren Turner and Jason Plato were evenly-matched in fourth and fifth, while Giovanardi’s fellow Vauxhall driver Tom Chilton completed the top six.

Seventh, in his family-run Jacksons M.Sport team’s BMW came reigning SEAT Cupra champion Mat Jackson, followed by Gareth Howell in Motorbase Performance’s SEAT Toledo.

Reigning Renault Clio Cup champion Tom Onslow-Cole, sharing driving duties with Turkington in Team RAC’s sole BMW today, posted a best time of 1m26.170s to wind up ninth fastest. John George, in TH Motorsport’s beautifully-liveried Honda Integra was tenth and said the Cornishman: “Only 1.3s off Plato – that’ll do nicely!”

Both newcomer Matt Allison (Motorbase Toledo) and Jason Hughes (Kartworld MG) also tested, although neither their cars registered an official time. For full times click on this link: http://www.msttiming.com/toca/2007/71141trg.pdf