Photo: BTCC Media

Jason Plato heads second practice

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Jason Plato set the fastest time of the day to top the times in the closing stages of second free practice at Brands Hatch. SEAT Leon driver Plato got a rare clear lap among the 26 runners to set a best lap time of 49.647s to edge out the Vauxhall Vectra of Fabrizio Giovanardi, on 49.659s.

A late string of laps netted the third fastest time of 49.696 for impressive series newcomer Mat Jackson, in his Jacksons Msport BMW 320si E90. As in first practice, times were again incredibly close and again less than a second covered the top 16.

SEAT’s Darren Turner was fourth fastest – a great comeback effort after he missed the opening 30 minutes when his car stopped at the foot of Paddock Hill Bend just seconds after leaving the pit lane. Vauxhall’s Tom Chilton and Colin Turkington, in Team RAC’s BMW completed the top six.

Turner’s chance to rejoin the session came when the session was briefly stopped to allow marshals to retrieve the stranded TH Motorsport Honda Integra of John George and A-Tech Alfa Romeo of Richard Marsh that had spun off the track at Paddock Hill bend and Clearways respectively. During the break, Turner’s car was returned to the pit lane on the back of a tow rope and, following a quick fix from his mechanics, he was able to at least complete the final ten minutes.

Reigning champion Matt Neal and team-mate Gordon Shedden, still getting to grips with their new Team Halfords Honda Civics, were 11th and 15th overall. Notably, ahead of Neal, filling sixth to tenth places, were Tom Onslow-Cole (RAC BMW), Eoin Murray (Quest Alfa), Adam Jones (Air Cool SEAT) and Gareth Howell (Motorbase SEAT) – like Jackson, the four youngsters have also shown strong form during the morning’s practice sessions.

Underlining the competitiveness of the field, session one pace-setter Mike Jordan’s Eurotech with John Guest-Speedfit Honda was this time down in 14th.

Teams and drivers now prepare for this afternoon’s crucial half-hour qualifying session at 15.25 that with 26 cars on track promises to be a busy affair.