Chris Smiley paces second practice at Thruxton
Chris Smiley dipped under the British Touring Car Championship qualifying lap record at Thruxton to top the times in second practice.
The Restart Racing driver set a best time of 1:14.951s around the high-speed Hampshire venue to lead the way field into this afternoon’s qualifying session – which has a threat of rain looming.
Former title winner and fellow Hyundai driver Tom Ingram finished just 0.008s of Smiley’s best time while Charles Rainford continued West Surrey Racing’s strong pace to complete the top three and finish as the lead BMW.
Hot on Rainford’s heels was the Alliance Racing duo of Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton, who were fourth and fifth, while Senna Proctor maintained his front-running form on his return to the series by finishing sixth.
Daniel Lloyd backed up Restart’s pace by finishing seventh while Adam Morgan, Aron Taylor-Smith and reigning champion Jake Hill rounded out the top ten.
Outside of the top ten was the likes of Snetterton race winners Dan Rowbottom and Mikey Doble, three-time champion Gordon Shedden and the most successful driver ever around Thruxton, Josh Cook.
Nick Halstead was the only absentee from second practice with the Power Maxed Racing driver having gone to hospital to have a rib jury assessed.
Qualifying is scheduled to get underway at 15:00.
