Rob Austin leads first practice session at Knockhill

Rob Austin was fastest of all in the first free practice session at a cold and overcast Knockhill circuit in his Audi A4, ahead of the Cicely Racing Toyota of Adam Morgan and championship leader Matt Neal’s Honda.

The top of the tables changed hands several times throughout the session with Austin’s team-mate Will Bratt the first to set the pace before Aron Smith took over in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST, with IP Tech Race Engineering’s new signing Mike Bushell also briefly leading the timing screens.

Paul O’Neill, on his BTCC return, was on top at the 10 minute mark in the Tony Gilham Racing Vauxhall Insignia before Eurotech’s Andrew Jordan and then Triple Eight’s Jason Plato went fastest of all, leading throughout the middle part of the session.

In the last ten minutes, Matt Neal took over P1 with a time of 53.308, before being displaced by Rob Austin, who ended up fastest with a time of 53.221, with the Cicely Toyota of Adam Morgan slotting behind by 67 thousandths of a second as the chequered flag waved.

BTCC newcomer Kieran Gallagher had a spin at Scotsman Corner early in the session, and found himself off the pace in the second of the Insignias, ending up 23rd quickest and the slowest of the Next Generation Touring Car class cars, whilst Speedsworks Motorsport’s Dave Newsham had an off at the SEAT curves, and was forced to stop on circuit with a blocked radiator.

Lea Wood was the fastest of the Jack Sears Trophy class runners in 21st, six-tenths of a second faster than his nearest class rival, the Motorbase Ford Focus of Liam Griffin.

The next free practice session takes place at 12:10 BST.