Ashley Sutton heads second day at Snetterton

Ashley Sutton headed the field on the second day of BTCC testing at Snetterton although wet weather would ultimately prevent teams from running through their full programmes.

After Jack Goff headed the dry opening day, teams were left with limited opportunity to run on slick tyres during Thursday’s two sessions, with rain arriving before the mid-day lunch break.

It meant the afternoon session became largely a wash-out, with the circuit only improving enough to allow some quick times to be set right at the end of the day.

As it was, Sutton’s time of 1min 57.130secs during the morning would prove to be not only the fastest time of the day, but also of the test as a whole, with the Subaru driver ending up just 0.059secs ahead of Jack Goff.

The Eurotech driver had led the way on Wednesday and managed to improve his time by three-tenths of a Thursday morning, with Tom Ingram being third fastest in his Speedworks Toyota.

Ingram’s time would also be third quickest across the two days, albeit two tenths of a second down on the outright pace.

Dave Newsham was fourth quickest in his Chevrolet Cruze but, like Sutton, elected to sit out the afternoon session, with Colin Turkington and Adam Morgan rounding out the top six places.

Notable names inside the top ten included Josh Price in ninth as he seeks to build on his improved performance at Croft prior to the summer break, and Rory Butcher – who showed strong pace on his first outing in Motorbase’s Ford Focus.

In the changeable conditions in the afternoon, Jake Hill’s Volkswagen CC would end up quickest, with the Team HARD. driver one of four drivers – the others being Matt Simpson, Matt Neal and Ingram – who would manage to break the two minute barrier.

However, only eleven drivers would set a time compared to the 25 who ventured out during the morning.