Dave Newsham fastest in second Rockingham practice

Speedworks Motorsport’s Dave Newsham set the pace in second practice at Rockingham, with a time more than a quarter of a second faster than his closest rival Sam Tordoff.

The first dry running of the weekend saw times tumbling with regularity, and it was the Toyota Avensis man who hit the front in the final minutes with a 1.22.839.

Newsham was the only driver to dip under the 1m23s barrier, and his final lap of the session, while not his best, would have also been good enough for P1.

Six different drivers topped the times during the 40 minutes, including Triple Eight MG’s Tordoff, who ended up 0.259 behind Newsham in second.

Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson was third in his Ford Focus ahead of Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith and Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan, three drivers who also had spells at the top.

Andrew Jordan, Nick Foster, Will Bratt, Gordon Shedden and Jason Plato rounded out the top 10, while Lea Wood was again the fastest Jack Sears Trophy runner in 23rd, in his JWT Performance Vauxhall Vectra.

Plato sat out much of the session with an apparent problem with the front left wheel of his car, while Dan Welch also didn’t set a time in the Proton Persona due to a driveshaft failure.

Honda Racing Team’s Shedden was also pushed into the garage with a technical problem within the final 10 minutes of the session.

At one stage, 17 drivers were within one second of the fastest time. Tordoff has been first for much of the session before being deposed by Morgan, whose time was then beaten by Jackson.

Smith briefly led before Jackson and then Tordoff returned to the top, all before Newsham’s lap at the end.

Qualifying for the first of tomorrow’s three races gets under way at 15:40 BST.