Jason Plato heads first practice at Thruxton before off
Team BMR’s Jason Plato pipped West Surrey Racing’s Andy Priaulx by less than a tenth of a second to top free practice one at Thruxton, before ending the session with an off at the final chicane.
Plato set his best time of 1.17.575 around the 10 minute mark and it wasn’t bettered in the final half hour, with Priaulx coming closest in his BMW 125i, ending up 0.068 behind.
But the double champion ended his session in the tyres as the chequered flag dropped, an incident he has since confirmed was caused by a tyre deflating in the braking zone.
Reigning champion Colin Turkington was third in the second of the Team BMR Volkswagen CCs, with Honda Racing Team’s Gordon Shedden fourth in the Civic Type-R after completing 23 laps, the most of any driver.
Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan was fifth, with Rob Collard, Andrew Jordan, Aron Smith, championship leader Matt Neal and Dave Newsham completing the top 10.
The session took place in cloudy, cool conditions, and saw eight drivers take turns at the top of the standings in the early minutes. The best time of Plato was around 1.4 seconds slower than Jordan’s lap record from 2014.
Ex-Formula One driver Martin Donnelly took part in his first session for Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing, after replacing Richard Hawken at the team. He finished 24th after clocking up 16 laps, finishing 3.147 off the ultimate pace set by Plato.
Donnelly’s team-mate Derek Palmer Jr failed to set a laptime after further power steering problems with his Q50, while both Speedworks Motorsport’s Simon Belcher and Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith were black flagged in the final two minutes of the 40 for exceeding track limits.
