Plato tops afternoon Rockingham test

Joint championship leader Jason Plato has topped the afternoon session at the Rockingham circuit – though the fastest time of the day was set by the NGTC engined Vectra of Andrew Jordan.

Plato was fastest in the second session, just one thousandth of a second down on Andrew Jordan’s time set in the cooler morning session.

The Pirtek Racing Vauxhall Vectra continues to make gains in a year where Jordan and Dave Pinkney put the new engine built by Swindon Engines through it’s paces.

Tom Chilton, another turbo-charged car with the LPG powered Ford Focus, is now testing with the newly mandated restrictor size imposed by TOCA. Tom was still second fastest though, showing that the Ford is still competitive.

James Nash was third in the normally aspirated Vauxhall Vectra run by Triple Eight Race Engineering. The #88 car, raced by Phil Glew at the season opener was tested today by Daniel Lloyd, who improved in the second session to finish 4th in the session.

Daniel wasn’t the only non-regular at the track today, as touring car star James Thompson was also present, sharing the Honda Civic of Matt Neal to help with the development of the car.

James drove the Team Dynamics Civic for part of the BTCC season last year, and was a works BTCC Honda driver during the final super-touring years between 1997 and 2000, before moving to Vauxhall and winning the championship in 2002 and 2004.

Thompson was sixth fastest in the session, just behind the other Civic of Gordon Shedden.