Mixed emotions for top rookie Senna Proctor

Senna Proctor admitted to mixed emotions after his first BTCC qualifying session saw him secure top rookie honours – despite it ending early in a Brands Hatch gravel trap.

The Power Maxed Racing driver had been in impressive form during practice, lapping quicker than more experienced team-mate Tom Chilton and putting his Vauxhall Astra into the top ten.

The youngster had been hoping for a similar performance in qualifying only to slide off at Druids when the arrival of rain led to challenging conditions on track, although that rain also prevented any of the other rookies from moving ahead of him on the grid.

As a result, Proctor will line up in P16 for his first BTCC race, just behind experienced race winners Mat Jackson and Rob Collard, and directly ahead of double champion Jason Plato.

“We were quite quick at the start of qualifying and I could see the rain was coming,” he said. “I just made a mistake and pushed too hard, but the rain then saved us a bit as it stopped others improving and meant I ended up as top rookie. I hold my hands up to the mistake and will learn from it, but I’m pleased we came away from the session as top rookie – and that we had good pace in practice.

“We can work forwards from 16th on the grid as the Astra is a great car and the guys at Power Maxed have done a fantastic job with it. We’ve had a few issues like you would expect with a new car but hopefully we can have three good races to start our season.”