No issues for ‘rusty’ Aron Taylor-Smith on return

A rusty Aron Taylor-Smith insisted that he was feeling fine after his return to action in first BTCC practice at Snetterton.

Aside from the pre-weekend shakedown, the first session of the weekend marked Taylor-Smith’s first time back in a race car following the accident in qualifying at Croft that left him with a fractured left leg.

The MG driver posted the 22nd best time in his repaired car – the car that had been raced by Dan Lloyd up to Thruxton – and was ahead of team-mate Josh Cook on the times, despite admitting that he hadn’t been fully up to speed on track.

“I did shakedown to make sure I could drive the car and whilst my leg isn’t perfect, it’s okay to drive,” he said. “I’m a bit rusty as I haven’t done anything apart from sit on the sofa since Croft so I probably took it a bit easy, and there is certainly more time in the car than I showed in that session.

“In terms of the leg, it all felt okay although I’ll probably be a bit stiff tonight; I certainly won’t want to run a marathon! The guys have done a fantastic job to repair the car and it felt absolutely spot on. I’m optimistic that when I get myself up to speed, we can push inside the top ten.”