Last-gasp Colin Turkington tops second Brands Hatch practice
Team BMR’s Colin Turkington staged a late dash to head the second free practice session at Brands Hatch, jumping to the top of the times just 30 seconds before the chequered flag.
Reigning champion Turkington was circulating towards the foot of the times for much of the session, before improving to sixth and then first on his final two runs.
Just 0.066 behind Turkington was the man replacing him at West Surrey Racing, Andy Priaulx, with Turkington’s team-mate Aron Smith also under a tenth off the pace in third.
Jason Plato made it three Volkswagen CCs in the top four ahead of Priaulx’s team-mate Sam Tordoff, with Adam Morgan, Jack Goff, Gordon Shedden, Rob Austin and Matt Neal completing the top 10.
A busy session saw no fewer than nine drivers take turns at the top of the standings, with the top 17 cars covered by less than one second. The final driver within the second, Warren Scott, had a heavy off at Paddock Hill which caused significant front-end damage to his Volkswagen CC.
There were also issues for Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook, who completed eight laps but didn’t set a laptime, while Tony Gilham Racing’s Kieran Gallagher slowed to a crawl in the opening minutes and returned to the pits. He later rejoined and completed 25 laps, finishing 24th.
Welch Motorsport’s Andy Wilmot got his first running of the weekend, albeit well off the pace. He was 26th and last after completing 10 laps in the Proton Gen-2, 12.492 seconds away from Turkington.
Infiniti’s Derek Palmer Jr secured more valuable running for the new Q50, completing 25 laps with a best time of 53.378, 4.438 seconds off the pace in 25th.
