Andrew Jordan tops Thruxton FP1

Andrew Jordan topped a quick-fire opening practice session at a cloudy Thruxton, one of only two drivers to dip below a 1:17 laptime.

In pre-event publicity from the circuit, Jordan stated that Thruxton was his favourite circuit and it showed in FP1 as he wrestled his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus to the top of the timesheets with a 1:16.814. Only Triple Eight Racing’s Josh Cook came close to Jordan’s time, posting a lap just 0.024 seconds behind in the MG6.

The pace in the opening 10 minutes was held by Jason Plato, getting some high speed running in the Subaru Levorg under his belt. Immediately behind him was the fast charging Tom Ingram, who once again continued his reputation of being incredibly quick on a Saturday morning, leapfrogging Plato with a 1:18.3, six tenths faster than the two-time champion’s fastest time.

Ingram continued to improve as the lap times began to tumble, beating his own time by a second just a few minutes later, with Plato and Adam Morgan also showing signs of some serious pace in the Ciceley Racing Mercedes-Benz.

Jordan went to the top of the times in the 18th minute of the 40 minute session, and was never beaten for pole, with Cook the only driver to come close to the Ford Focus’ time.

The session was temporarily halted with six and a half minutes to go as Morgan went off in a big way at Allard, damaging the Mercedes in the process. With only a small amount of time left, no-one went significantly quicker in the restarted session.

Colin Turkington produced a fantastic lap in the Team BMR Subaru Levorg, setting the third fastest time of the session and within half a second of Jordan’s top time. Meanwhile, Daniel Lloyd made his debut in the series with 15th fastest time of the day, just over a second slower than Jordan.

The puncture curse hit again at Thruxton as a number of cars suffered with their tyres, notably left front punctures for Aron Smith and Ash Sutton and a right-front puncture for Tom Ingram.