Turner stays on top in second practise

Darren Turner set the fastest time of the day so far as he headed second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship practice at Thruxton, while his team-mate Jason Plato was lucky to survive a wild moment through the 120mph Church corner when a tyre suddenly punctured.

SEAT driver Turner had been fastest in session one, but this time dipped beneath the 1m18s barrier to eclipse the field with a lap time in 1m17.709s. This is the second meeting in a row that Turner has been fastest in both practice sessions having also achieved the feat at Rockingham a fortnight ago.

Second fastest was Vauxhall’s Fabrizio Giovanardi on 1m18.128s and third, on 1m18.345s, Gordon Shedden in his Team Halfords Honda Civic.

Tom Chilton, like team-mate Giovanardi spectacular to watch as he skipped over the kerbs at Club chicane, was fourth ahead of series leader Plato in fifth. Plato, though, suffered a moment of drama as he entered the right-handed Church bend and his left front tyre deflated.

The SEAT driver explained: “That was a reasonably big moment. It was a high speed off onto the grass but thankfully there’s a big run-off the area there to bring the car back under control. The deflation was pretty sudden so I’m pretty sure I’ve run over some debris or maybe nicked the tyre on a kerb.”

After his mechanics had checked over his car, an undeterred Plato later rejoined the session to set his best time of 1m18.742s, thus keeping Colin Turkington, who set a best lap in 1m19.064s in his Team RAC BMW, back in sixth.

There were several dramas for other drivers. Like Plato’s SEAT, Mike Jordan’s Eurotech/John Guest-Speedfit Honda Integra limped back to the pit lane with a punctured left-front tyre, while Nick Leason, in BTC Racing’s newly-liveried Lexus IS200, and Dave Pinkney, in A-Tech’s Alfa Romeo 156 each survived lurid slides under braking at high speed for the Club chicane.

But Pinkney’s team-mate Richard Marsh was totally out of luck as an engine problem in his Alfa from first practice denied him of any track time. Rival Alfa team Quest has loaned A-Tech its spare motor ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session at 15.15.

Marsh said: “The four-week gap after Thruxton can’t come soon enough. We need to re-group and sort it out before we race at Croft in June. Many thanks to Eoin – hopefully his engine will work a treat.”