‘King of Croft’ Turkington heads second hybrid test

Colin Turkington once again topped the times in the second official BTCC test of the off-season at Croft, as teams continued to work on getting up to speed with the new Cosworth hybrid systems.

The WSR driver was one of five drivers to dip below his own lap record at the North Yorkshire circuit to head the pack in his BMW 330e M Sport, as he did at Donington Park during the ‘hybrid installation’ test last month.

Turkington’s best time of 1:21.497s came during the morning running as he completed a session high 52 laps and was good enough to leave him a tenth of a second clear of team-mate Stephen Jelley – who was fastest in the afternoon.

Dan Cammish was third fastest in the first of the two NAPA Racing Fords as the leading front-wheel drive runner ahead of the Hondas of Josh Cook and Gordon Shedden.

Tom Ingram was close to lap record pace in his EXCELR8 Hyundai to round out the top six ahead of Jake Hill, who was limited to just ten laps during the afternoon in his BMW.

Rookie George Gamble, defending champion Ash Sutton and Adam Morgan rounded out the top ten.

In total, 22 drivers set timed laps over the course of the day with every team present with the exception of Team HARD with its Cupras.

Next up, the field will head to Thruxton next week for the season launch test, where all 29 cars are expected to take to the track.