Jack Goff opens up top in first practice at Thruxton

Jack Goff posted the quickest time in the opening BTCC practice session of the weekend at Thruxton despite a bizarre mid-session stoppage that cause the first 40 minutes of track action to be briefly delayed.

The Eurotech Racing man was on the pace throughout at the wheel of his Honda Civic Type-R, setting a best time of 1min 16.454secs that allowed him to edge out Adam Morgan’s Mercedes A-Class by exactly a tenth of a second.

Goff was however one of a number of drivers to be warned about exceeding track limits at the final chicane, with officials looking set to crack down hard on anyone seeking to gain an unfair advantage.

Goff’s best time came during the first phase of the session, which had to be halted when an ITV camera cable at Church was collected by a passing car and dragged all the way up to the final corner.

Once restarted, the remainder of the session would pass without issue, with Goff and Morgan followed on the times by Matt Neal in the first of the Dynamics-run Civics and the first of the BMWs in the hands of Andrew Jordan.

Ashley Sutton and the impressive Chris Smiley in his BTC Norlin Chevrolet Cruze rounded out the top eight.

Championship leader Tom Ingram was 14th quickest on the times, two places ahead of Gordon Shedden – who carries maximum ballast into the weekend despite not leading the championship following his exclusion from the race three results at Donington Park.

Shedden held the championship lead on the road following that race, with drivers maintaining the ballast they would have run in the event of a disqualification.

Whilst Sutton impressed at the wheel of his Levorg, as he did at Donington Park, the remaining three Subarus continued to struggle – with Jason Plato, James Cole and Josh Price down in 27th, 31st and 32nd place.