Photo: BTCC

Dan Rowbottom tops Free Practice at Croft

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Dan Rowbottom continued CPRL’s recent run of front-running form by topping the times in British Touring Car Championship practice at Croft.

While the Mercedes-AMG A35 Saloon squad continue to operate while under administration at the moment, Rowbottom made his pace clear to see as he moved to the head of the field in the closing stages of the 50-minute session.

Setting a best time of 1:20.996s around the North Yorkshire venue, Rowbottom – who is chasing a first win of the season – finished a little over a tenth of a second clear of Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble, who was another to improve late on.

Just a thousandth of a second shy of the Independent pace-setter was the lead Alliance Racing Ford Focus Titanium of home hero Dan Cammish, who is currently in hot pursuit of reigning champion Tom Ingram in the overall Drivers’ standings.

Josh Cook finished fourth in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla, narrowly ahead of the aforementioned Ingram, who had occupied top spot earlier in the session in his EXCELR8 Hyundai.

Championship leader Ash Sutton was next up to complete the top six, although the four-time champion was the cause of the sessions only red flag after he made a trip through the gravel at the chicane early on.

WSR’s Charles Rainford set the exact same time as Sutton to finish seventh, with Aiden Moffat, Daryl De Leon and Tom Chilton all completing the top ten.

Further down the order, three-time race winner and in-form driver Adam Morgan could only muster the 19th fastest time in the sister CPRL Mercedes.

Lewis Gilbert meanwhile returned to action after his high-speed crash at Donington Park, albeit this weekend the Scotsman is driving a spare BMW 330i M Sport chassis.

Qualifying at Croft is scheduled to begin at 14:05 this afternoon, prior to the Qualifying Race which is due to start at 15:05.