Andrew Jordan fastest in first Thruxton practice session
Joint championship leader Andrew Jordan set the pace in the opening free practice session at Thruxton, with a lap more than 0.4s faster than closest challenger Gordon Shedden.
The Eurotech Racing man set a 1.16.818 with 16 minutes left of the 40 minute session, winding up 0.430 than Honda Racing Team’s Shedden.
West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington was third, ahead of Team BMR’s Alain Menu, who has been tipped to go well this weekend in his Volkswagen CC.
Mat Jackson was an encouraging fifth for Motorbase Performance, with Sam Tordoff, Matt Neal, Adam Morgan, Tom Ingram and Fabrizio Giovanardi completing the top 10. Joint championship leader Jason Plato wound up 12th in his Triple Eight MG 6GT.
Tordoff, Shedden, Neal and Ingram all completed in the region of 20 laps, trying out race runs at the earliest possible opportunity, as did Motorbase Performance’s Jack Clarke in 26th.
There were two red flags in the final minutes of the session.
The first was with seven minutes to go when Rob Collard had an off at Allard, and recovered to the pits with some damage to his West Surrey Racing BMW 125i.
The second, with just a couple of minutes to go, brought a slightly premature end to the session, for reasons which weren’t immediately apparent.
Early on, BTC Racing’s Chris Stockton had an off, detaching some bodywork on his new Chevrolet Cruze hatchback, and he was the only driver not to set a flying lap.
Only 30 cars took part in the session, as Rotek Racing’s Robb Holland has been forced to sit out the weekend following his accident with James Cole at Donington Park.
Rob Austin was the only driver to receive a track limits warning flag in his Audi A4.
The second free practice session gets under way at 12:40 BST.
