Tom Ingram times it right to top FP1 at Knockhill
Tom Ingram timed his best lap to perfection to lead the way in the opening BTCC practice session of the weekend at Knockhill.
On a damp but drying track, the final moments of the session would see lap times tumble as drivers made the switch to slick tyres and it was the Speedworks driver who would ultimately prevail; his best lap of 53.425secs being comfortably clear of the pack behind.
In fact, Ingram was the only driver to break the 54secs mark in the session, with the Eurotech Honda of Jack Goff being more than six tenths of a second behind.
Goff had earlier been one of the quickest drivers on track in the wet and would edge out the Ford Focus on Mat Jackson, with Rob Collard slotting into fourth as the best of the BMWs. Dave Newsham’s Chevrolet and the Mercedes of Adam Morgan rounded out the top six; the latter despite a lurid slide and spin at Leslie’s shortly after switching to slicks.
Points leader Gordon Shedden was seventh ahead of Chris Smiley, with the Vauxhall of Tom Chilton and James Cole’s Subaru rounding out the top ten.
Debutant Rory Butcher spent much of the session running inside the top ten ahead of his first outing with Motorbase and would eventually end up twelfth, with the likes of Jason Plato, Ashley Sutton, Colin Turkington, Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal failing to set times when the circuit conditions were at their best.
Plato also had an off-track excursion at turn one that saw him forced to pit to allow the BMR team to remove grass from the front of his Subaru Levorg.
